Russia's, Ukraine's biggest shipbuilders sign cooperation agreement

Russia’s and Ukraine’s biggest shipbuilders, Severodvinsk-based Sevmash and Nikolayev-based Black Sea Shipbuilding Works, have signed a cooperation agreement, a spokeswoman for the Sevmash plant told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. According to Yekaterina Pilikina, heads of the two enterprises, Nikolai Kalistratov of Sevmash and Dmitry Mordovenko of the Black Sea Shipbuilding Works, who signed the agreement, said it was time to restore bilateral cooperation in the shipbuilding sector. “Our plants have many points of contact, the basic one being overhaul and re-equipment of the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy in Severodvinsk,” the spokeswoman said.
The ship was built at the Black Sea Shipbuilding Works in 1982 as the Baku aircraft carrying cruiser, and later was renamed Admiral Gorshkov. Now it is being re-equipped as an aircraft carrier by Sevmash.
Alexei Petrin, the head of Ukraine’s shipbuilding holding, of which the Black Sea Shipbuilding Works is a part, said Ukrainian shipbuilders welcomed mutually beneficial cooperation with their Russian partners in the areas of surface shipbuilding, oil and gas projects, etc.