About 85 vessels can be purchased within the state subsidies for providing the fleet for foreign trade operations. The specified number of vessels will include bulk carriers (60 units), as well as large-capacity Cape-size vessels (12 units).
Banks are expected to allocate more than 2 billion USD for these purposes, of which the government will subsidize about 920 million USD, including about 315 million USD in the next two years. The program of government subsidies will be in effect until 2034.
The Russian government has been developing vessels acquisition project since 2022. Unlike other state initiatives for vessels construction at Russian shipyards, these subsidies are to be extended to the purchase of the foreign shipyards’ production as well as fleet on the secondary market. The authorities are planning to subsidize loan rates for banks, which will finance the purchase and charter of vessels to service Russian export-import flows.
Currently, Russian seaborne exports are largely serviced by vessels, which are not controlled by Russian companies, accounting for about 70% of export-import cargo turnover in 2022.
Russian coal companies, that own port capacities, are in great need of building a complete logistics chain, given the new ultra-long routes from the Northwest ports to the Asia-Pacific.
The development of its own fleet in Russia is especially important amid the leaving of many international shipping companies and will ensure sustainable transportation in the key export-import destinations.
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