BLACK SEA SHIPYARD COLLAPSED AND LIQUIDATED IN UKRAINE

The fate of the Black Sea Shipyard (BSS), which was declared bankrupt in 2018, was finally decided on June 25, 2021 by the complete and final liquidation of the enterprise. According to Olga Protasova, who performed the functions of the interim manager, all employees of the plant were fired, and the property of the enterprise was sold. At the same time, the company was unable to cover all debts to creditors.

The shipyard on the Black Sea was founded in 1895. The enterprise has produced many naval vessels (cruisers, destroyers, submarines). After nationalization by the Soviet government in 2019, the shipyard produced and repaired ships, created aerial bombs and pontoons.

In the Soviet times, the BSS was the flagship of shipbuilding, and in the early 1990s, the first president of Ukraine called the shipyard a ‘pearl’.

The largest shipyard of the Ukrainian SSR employed 40 thousand employees, working in conjunction with other enterprises.

In the post-Soviet period, it continued to serve defense orders for some time, also concluding contracts with foreign partners. The last major order was the construction of tankers for the Greek company Avin International. In the 2000s, there were no large orders for the enterprise, and the management rented out production areas.

After the purchase of the BSS by Vadim Novinsky in 2007, the shipyard became a part of the Smart Maritime Group. An attempt to organize the production of corvettes at the enterprise was unsuccessful - the Ukrainian state abandoned the Corvette program in 2018. By that time, the number of employees in the company had been reduced to 2,000 people, and the shipyard itself went bankrupt.

The Commercial Court filed for bankruptcy and the sale of the plant in 2018. The metal warehouse and five workshops of the plant were exhibited at an initial price of 118.45 million hryvnia (less than $ 5 million), while the floating workshop and dock were sold for 32.12 million hryvnia (about $ 1.3 million). The sale of the plant’s equipment raised UAH 150 million, UAH 111 million of which was received by the Naval Park Company, owned by the oligarch Novinsky.

Many wondered, what would happen to the unfinished Vladimir the Great corvette.

The owner of the company even stated that the ship's hull would be sold for scrap metal, but in the end it was passed to the Defense Department of Ukraine - the documentation for the corvette project was given away as well. It is assumed that now the ship will be re-profiled and completed at another enterprise, or will become another piece of scrap metal.