The head of the shipyard, Alexey Rakhmanov, announced the move in a Maritime Board meeting chaired by Denis Manturov, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade.

 

"I signed an order to create a full-fledged second shift to work at the Baltic Shipyard, with an investment of about RUB6 billion (USD 84.7 million) in equipment and infrastructure," said Rakhmanov, noting this supports Russia's 'Maritime Doctrine'.

This policy set includes as a priority the development of the Northern Sea Route, by which cargo vessels can travel through Arctic waters from northern Europe to east Asia. Traffic on the route has increased by a factor of ten since 2012 and facilitating year-round passage is the prime mission of Russia's nuclear icebreaker fleet.

 

Rakhmanov said: "We will be able to increase the production capacity of the Baltic Shipyard by 50%."

 

As well as icebreakers, the capacity will also be used to build barges for floating nuclear power plants to power the development of Arctic ports. One example is the Cape Nagloynyn development at which four floating plants with two small reactors each will power a new port as well as the Baimskaya copper and gold mine. Short deadlines and a lack of a capacity at Russian shipyards mean those barges are being built in China.

 

The Chukotka icebreaker is currently under construction at the Baltic Shipyard while the fleet operator Atomflot, which is a subsidiary of Rosatom, is expected to order two more.