Sea- and ocean-going carriers

Long since, marine transport have been very important for development of the international trade and Russian economy in whole. Under conditions when marine transportation is the cheapest or safest and sometimes the only mode of transport, cargo ship sector was developing rather rapidly.

Even today, when air and railroad transport has become common, water transport continue to be the basic way of cargo handling. 4/5 of the international trade uses water transportation.

There are several types of carriers. These are tankers (liquid cargo vessels) – their importance grew with increase of the function of oil in the world; container carriers occupying the second place by the volume of shipments; all-purpose dry cargo vessels, bulkers used for transportation of all kinds of ores, coal or corn in bulk; refrigerators, lighter carriers used for transportation of floating barges, and car-transport vessels.

The character of marine transport leave noticeable mark on the shipbuilding in this segment. All enterprises engaged in construction and repair of marine vessels are to be located in close proximity from a river or a channel where such a big vessel can be launched. However, plants fabricating separate units and material can be located rather far, and only the availability of convenient transportation is important.