Putin: “There would be no luck.” Sanctions boost Russian shipbuilding performance

The author first seemingly supports with selected appendices a recent optimistic document, which President Putin commented on in the relevant part with unusually brief remarks. The governor of the Arkhangelsk region, Alexander Tsybulsky, spoke with him. It concerned the situation in the Arkhangelsk region as a whole, including, for example, forestry and the woodworking industry, shipbuilding was supposed to be its premium part.

Thus, Tsybulsky informed Putin that the Arkhangelsk region is actively developing shipbuilding and repair, which is becoming one of the key sectors of the regional economy. In recent years, it has shown significant growth, which is conditioned by both external and internal factors.

According to Tsybulsky, one of the main drivers of the development of ship repair was the return of Russian ships that were previously serviced in European ports. After the introduction of restrictions on access to foreign docks, shipowners began to turn to domestic enterprises. Tsybulsky noted that while in 2020 180 ships were repaired at the enterprises of the Arkhangelsk region, in 2024 this number will almost double – to 350. This has stimulated the development of production capacities and attracted investments in the industry.
“There would be no luck” – the President of the Russian Federation commented on the above data.

Continuing the topic of shipbuilding, the Governor of the Arkhangelsk Region emphasized that special attention is paid to the modernization of shipbuilding enterprises. The Krasnaya Kuznitsa Shipyard (Красная кузница), which is part of the OSK Corporation (Объединённая судострои́тельная корпора́ция» (ОСК)), thanks to which, for the first time in 30 years, an order was placed for the construction of four passenger ships of a class whose classification allows navigation in areas with ice. The first two vessels of this class are planned to be launched in the summer. This is an important step for the region, where passenger river transport annually carries almost a million people, including residents of island territories.

The Krasnaya Kuznitsa Shipyard recently repaired the icebreaker Dikson:

On the other hand, fishing remains an important industry for the Arkhangelsk Region. According to Tsybulsky, over the past five years, five super-modern fishing vessels have been built, which operate in the Barents, Norwegian, White and Kara Seas. Another vessel is scheduled for delivery in 2025, and two more are under construction. According to the governor, this is an almost complete renewal of the region’s fishing fleet, which will increase the efficiency of fishing and strengthen the position of the Arkhangelsk region in the market. Alexander Tsybulsky emphasized that for the further development of the industry, it is necessary to create modern conditions for ship repair and construction. Investments already flowing into the region allow for the modernization of production facilities and an increase in the competitiveness of the region at the federal and international levels. At the same time, he expressed hope that a possible “warming of relations” between Russia and the United States will not affect the desire and understanding of fishermen and those who go to sea to continue cooperation with domestic shipyards.

“Desire and understanding are not enough. We need to create conditions.” – the President of the Russian Federation answered the governor.

So much for the governor’s document, which could be more complete if it included, for example, a mention that another Russian shipyard, PAO SSK (Public Joint Stock Company «Ship Repair and Shipbuilding Corporation»), was building a new dock for the aforementioned Krasnaya Kuznitsa shipyard. PAO SSK retained the competence to build vessels and pontoons using reinforced concrete.

What is more striking is that Governor Tsybulsky’s document did not contain any mention of the project to build a new shipyard in the city of Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast. Of course, he would have had to mention not only the developer’s security and the synergistic benefits of the new shipyard. But also the potential problems. In particular, with securing personnel in a situation where the unemployment rate there is 1%.

The lack of labor is the main problem of the Russian economy. If the special military operation is conducted in a protracted and demanding style, the situation will worsen. In December 2024, Ukrainians estimated that the Russian military-industrial complex (MIC) lacked 400,000 workers just to meet its personnel needs. In March of last year, the Russian MIC employed 3.5 million people.
Of course, this is causing an outflow of workers from civilian sectors to the MIC for both material and patriotic reasons. This probably also affected shipbuilding, as evidenced by the delay in the construction of the fishing and crab fleet. This initiative, launched in 2017, was supposed to produce 106 new ships, including 64 fishing vessels and 32 crab vessels.

The Vladivostok shipyard Vostochny Verf recently completed the crab fishing vessel “Andrei Basargin”. It has a length of 63.27 m and a displacement of 1048 tons. The crew is 21 people, the autonomy of the voyage is 45 days. It can transport about 100 tons of live crabs. Orders for the construction of 106 ships of the project in various Russian shipyards were a condition for the allocation of fishing and crab fishing quotas by the Russian government. It is getting into a slump, the priority of some shipyards may have been the fulfillment of state defense orders.

Russia may increase the initiative to attract workers from abroad, including EU countries, where the industry is laying off workers due to lower competitiveness caused, among other things, by higher energy prices. With the current unemployment rate, Russia has practically no internal human resources. If we ignore child labor, which is a privilege of the last stage of the mobilization economy, what remains is the retraining of women for production professions.

A session with a nice young Russian woman who completed a welding course and worked in the civilian sector:

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