Zelenodolskoye Zavod imeni A.M.Gorky

The Zelenodolsk works named after A.M.Gorky is a highly-developed shipyard able to build the vessels of river-marine type with the displacement of up to 5000 t, hydrofoil passenger motorships and air cushioned vessels. Founded in 1895 on the Volga river, the Zelenodolsk Shipyard has evolved from a state-run ship repair facility into a diversified modern enterprise. The shipyard's production capacities include machine shops and casting yards (steel, titanium and copper), and a unique shipbuilding slipway has been put in place.

The shipyard shipbuilding facilities have the capabilities to manufacture frigates, corvettes, commercial river-marine vessels displacing up to 5,000 tons, river hydrofoils and hovercraft, and manufacture of a broad assortment of shipborne equipment (propellers, shaft lines, hydraulic capstans, winches, and other products). As part of the conversion drive launched in 1993 the yard has been the project to build a river-tanker displacing 4,000t based on an order placed by Tatarstan's Government. Concurrently with the tanker project, the shipyard has plans to assemble the Project 16510 (NIZHEGORODETS) dry cargo river-vessel displacing 2,500/3,000t.

Publicly Held Company «Zelenodolsk Plant named after A.M. Gorky» is one of the leading enterprises in Russia which celebrated its 110-year anniversary of its industrial activity in 2005. Throughout the history of its experience in shipbuilding the PHC „Zelenodolsk Plant named after A.M. Gorky“ has established a reputation as a reliable business partner. Successful location in the center of Russia on the bank of the Volga River enables the shipyard to deliver ships and vessels to any region of the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the North Sea basins using inland waterways.

Production and technical basis of the PHC «Zelenodolsk Plant named after A.M. Gorky» comprises a complex of shops covering all types of modern shipbuilding which makes it possible to construct various ships and vessels of small and middle size. The ships are built with the use of progressive method out of modules on the closed building ways provided with the high-powered cranage and the launching flooding dock with the system of water defrosting in winter time. It allows to construct and to launch vessels as well as to perform dock trials in any season regardless of weather conditions. Progressive technical-organizational principles of in-line and positional shipbuilding starting with putting metal into production and ending with commissioning of the constructed vessel are implemented at the plant. New technologies of cleaning and painting of plates, advanced welding techniques, and computerised system of preproduction on the mold-loft floor are employed by the shipyard.

PHC «Zelenodolsk Plant named after A.M. Gorky» possesses developed machine-building facilities, including foundry, forging shop, heat-treating department, electroplating, welding and machining workshops. It enables the company to produce a wide variety of products for marine machine-building and diversified equipment for oil and gas industry. The titanium foundry of the PHC «Zelenodolsk Plant named after A.M. Gorky» is one of the largest ones in Europe as to production of shaped titanium castings for the most important branches of industry: shipbuilding, aircraft, and aerospace, oil and gas (including offshore field development).

PHC «Zelenodolsk Plant named after A.M. Gorky» employs experienced and qualified staff facilitating construction of top-quality river and sea-going vessels, as well as ships with complicated configuration dedicated not only for the Russian Navy but also for delivering them abroad.

Zelenodolskoye imeni A.M.Gorky - History

The Publicly Held Company «Zelenodolsk plant named after A.M. Gorky», founded in 1895, is one of the leading enterprise of Russia. The company’s scope of activity comprises shipbuilding, machine-building, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, manufacturing of equipment for oil-and-gas industry, production of large metal structures and consumer goods.

History of the shipyard’s foundation is closely associated with the development of shipping on the Volga river. At the end of the XIX century Russia felt an increasing demand for building of new ship repair plants and workshops. In 1895 by resolution of the Ministry of Railways of the Kazan Region of Russia in the area of favourable Paratsk creek being located 40 km from Kazan, at the intersection of the Volga-river and Moscow-Kazan railway (the land was leased from peasants of Kabachishchi village), Paratsk ship repair workshops were established. The main purpose of their foundation was repair of technical fleet including drags, pump dredges and auxiliary vessels.

Foundry, engineering, boiler, forging, and joiner’s shops employing 86 workers were built in 1907. By 1913 ship repair workshops had turned into a streamlined ship repair facility having capacities to construct vessels as well as to perform major repair of steam tugs, barges, and hydraulic dredges up to 100 units per winter. In 1918 after evacuation of some shops and departments of Baltic and Izhorsky shipyards to Paratsk, ship repair workshops were reorganized into Volzhsk Autonomous Shipbuilding and Engineering Plant of the Naval commissariat.

During the civil war in Russia the plant served as a repair facility for Volga fleet ships. It refitted steamships and barges into warships, and by May, 1919 it had commissioned more than 110 vessels. In 1922 the plant was renamed into «Krasny Metallist». By then along with the ship repair activity it had been involved in manufacturing of agricultural equipment, such as winnowing machines, threshing machines, mills, ploughs, cast iron. As a result of reconstruction in 1925-1930 slipway, mold loft, compressor station, hull shop, marine boiler shop, machine-shop, woodworking shop, and forging were put into operation enabling the plant to start an extensive shipbuilding program.

Until 1941 the plant produced dry cargo barges with tonnage up to 1100 – 2300 tons, annually constructed 35-40 units of river paddle tugs with power of 120 – 600 h.p., as well as steam-engines, capstans, pumps and other shipborne machinery. The whole production process, from designing of ships to the delivery of finished products, was performed in-house. In 1932 by regulation of the General Executive Committee of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic the plant was given another name – Plant named after Alexey Gorky – in honour of the 40th anniversary of literary and public activity of the well-known Russian writer. The first military order for construction of modern for that time river-going armoured boats of projects 1124 and 1125 was placed in 1934. By 1944 the plant had built 154 vessels of this type.

During the Second World War 2800 employees out of 5000 had gone to the front. With the help of specialists evacuated from Kiev and Leningrad and equipment delivered from there, the plant continued manufacturing of defence products: armoured boats, small anti-submarine ships, tugs, barges, motor torpedo-boats, as well as 76 mm artillery projectiles, machine-guns, air defence gun mounts, air bomb shells, digging tools, articles for snow planes.

In 1943 the plant was awarded the Challenge Red Banner of the State Defence Committee for successful production of military equipment and ammunition. The armoured boats constructed by the enterprise received a high appraisal from the Russian Navy. After the war the boats were pedestalled as monuments in such cities as Pinsk, Ismail, Mariupol, and Stalingrad. The plant was the first in the USSR (1949) to introduce in-line and positional method of shipbuilding. It enabled the enterprise to deliver 25 – 35 vessels annually. In 1976 a unique shipbuilding complex «Volga» comprising two shops with slipways and non-freezing dock basin was put into operation, enabling the plant to construct ships with the displacement of up to 7000 tons by means of subassembly of enlarged blocks weighing up to 400 tons. Since that time the plant has been able to perform mooring trials of ships all the year round.

Throughout its history the shipyard has built more than 1500 sea- and river-going vessels and ships including nearly 600 warships. They include big and small antisubmarine ships of projects 122b, 201, 201M, 204, communication and auxiliary ships of «Zvuk» type, storm-boats – „Skat“ hovercrafts, floating facilities for tanks, a large series of „Albatros“ antisubmarine ships, as well as patrol boats for the Navy of Germany, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Algeria, and Lybia.

In the early eighties the first in the world prototype antisubmarine hydrofoil «Sokol» was delivered. Two missile hovercrafts „Bora“ and „Samum“ having no analogues in the world by that time were built in the nineties. In 2003 the plant delivered the patrol missile ship „Tatarstan“ to the Caspian fleet.

Besides warships the shipyard has constructed a great number of civil ships, namely: cargo motor vessel «Kolkhoznitsa» – 22 units, pushers – 34 units, fishing vessels of project 1375 – 10 units, fishing vessels of project 1361 – 37 units, ocean-going refrigerator carriers of project 1351 – 4 units. Since 1961 more than 300 units of high-speed passenger hydrofoils „Meteor“ have been delivered; they are operated on the rivers of Russia and CIS countries as well as Poland, Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and China.

In addition to shipbuilding, the plant possesses highly-developed engineering facilities, operates a powerful foundry facility. They contribute to production of wide range of shipboard equipment (propellers, capstans, winches, shafting lines, anchors) for the whole shipbuilding cycle and products for gas-and-oil industry. Titanium foundry, which is the largest in Europe, was put into operation in 1967. Since 1995 the plant has entered the world market of titanium castings. The titanium shop is equipped with 12 vacuum titanium melting furnaces capable to melt any grade of titanium and special steel alloys with improved physical and mechanical properties. The plant was the first in Russia to master manufacturing of bridge superstructures of large blocks with assembly and mounting of blocks performed on building berth. In 1997 — 2001 the plant had produced about 12000 units of bridge structures for construction of the first part of the bridge over the Kama-river in the area of Sorochi Gori.

In May, 2003 the State-owned Unitary Enterprise «Zelenodolsk plant named after A.M. Gorky» was reorganised into the Publicly Held Company „Zelenodolsk plant named after A.M. Gorky“.

In 2004 construction of fast river-going passenger ferries of A45 project for JSC «Lena United River Shipping» (Yakoutsk) was started. The designer of the vessel is OOO „AGAT DESIGN BUREAU“. The ferry is designed for fast conveyance of crew and passengers on inland waterways up to 650 km long. Fitting A45 with special devices (interceptors) providing optimal running trim of the vessel proved to be one of its distinctive features.

In 2004 -2005 the PHC «Zelenodolsk plant named after A.M. Gorky» manufactured superstructures for „Millennium“ bridge which connects urban districts of the city of Kazan which are located both on left and right banks of the Kazanka-river. The bridge has become a part of a smaller Kazan Ring Road. It helped to reduce traffic streams in the central part of the capital of Tatarstan. The bridge capacity is 10-15 thousand cars per day.

Zelenodolsk Design Bureau

Zelenodolskoye PKB 
SUE "Zelenodolsk Design Marine Bureau"
4ia Lenina Str., Zelenodolsk, Tatarstan,
422540, Russia
Phone: (84371) 2-13-66
Fax: (84371) 2-78-18
E-mail: jahta@komtech.bancorp.ru
State-Owned Enterprise Plant Named After A.M. Gorky
5, Zavodskaya str., Selenodolsk, 
Tatarstan 422520 Russia   
Phone:  +7(84371)228-54
Fax:    +7(84371)212-95   

The Zelenodolsk Design Bureau was the first to employ gas-turbine engines (Project 159) to power ships. It has developed over 20 projects and modifications of fighting ships, vessels and boats. Over 840 antisubmarine, escort and patrol ships were built by various shipyards under these projects for the Russian Navy, Border Guard Service, and for export. In the early 1990s, the Neustrashimy (Fearless) escort ship (Project 11540), equipped with the most up-to-date missile and antisubmarine weapon systems, became operational in the Russian Navy. The Gepard frigate (project 1166.1) has been designed to perform the following missions: to patrol the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and to fight enemy surface ships, submarines and airctaft.

The Zelenodolsk Design Bureau has been developing small- and medium-displacement combat ships for over 60 years. A total of about 800 ships and vessels designed by the bureau have been manufactured with almost a quarter of them exported to foreign customers. The design bureau abides by the following motto: «You can sell a weapon only if it is in service with your own Navy.» Advanced ships developed by the Zelenodolsk Design Bureau are in the inventory of the Russian Navy. Their development was based on the bureau’s long-term experience, contemporary requirements, and sophisticated equipment, as well as cutting-edge design and production techniques.

Present-day materiel is so sophisticated that relatively small ships can be either used as special-purpose ships or adapted for quick-change armament suites. Otherwise, their displacement will have to be increased for such ships to perform various missions in remote areas on the high seas. Therefore, it is a must to strictly define a ship’s mission, area of operations, and armament suite, as well as to proportion all these factors to the cost.

The Zelenodolsk Design Bureau develops ships with a displacement of 500, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, and 4,000 t. Vessels with a displacement of about 500 t include the Project 21630 gunboat, the Project 204 antisubmarine warfare (ASW) boat, and the Project 11451 ASW hydrofoil boat. The following ships were designed to have a displacement of about 1,000 t: Project 159 and Project 35 ASW ships and their modifications, the Project 1124 ASW boat, and the Project 1331M ASW boat (manufactured in Germany with participation of the Zelenodolsk Design Bureau). All Yaguar-class corvettes (Project 1159, Project 1159T, and Project 1159TR) have a displacement of about 1,500 t.

The Project 11661K missile ship Tatarstan, the flagship of the Caspian Flotilla, features a displacement of about 2,000 t. Gepard-3.9-class frigates manufactured for the Vietnamese Navy boast the same displacement. And finally, Project 11540 ships Neustrashimy and Yaroslav Mudry have a displacement of about 4,000 t.

There are export versions of all ships in service with the Russian Navy, and their description will be offered to potential customers at the Euronaval 2010 show. It is worth mentioning that these versions are based on the seaframe principle, and their armament can be configured depending on their mission and requests of a customer wishing to buy a platform for performing missions in a specific theater of naval operations. For instance, corvettes with a displacement of 500 to 1,000 t, which can enjoy close air support provided by coast-based aircraft, if necessary, may be used in offshore areas (up to 100-200 km). Corvettes or frigates with a displacement of 1,000 to 2,000 t may be used for operation in littoral areas, shelf and land-locked seas (up to 300-500 km). Frigates and other warships with a displacement of 4,000 t plus are needed for operations in maritime zones (over 500 km). It is obvious that a larger displacement means a better navigability, a greater endurance, a longer operational range, and improved defensive capabilities, at least, against individual attack means.