page_title: SA-15 (ship)
section_title: Future
hierarchical_section_title: SA-15 (ship) / History / Future
caption_attribution_description: English: Kapitan Danilkin outside Sabetta in April 2015
context_page_description: SA-15 is the project name for a series of icebreaking multipurpose cargo ships built in Finland for the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The ships, capable of independent operation in all prevailing arctic ice conditions, were the first merchant vessels designed for year-round operations in the Northern Sea Route. For this purpose they have hulls that resemble those of polar icebreakers and propulsion systems capable of withstanding ice loads.
  While the ships are also known as the Norilsk class after the first ship, Norilsk, they are usually referred to by their project name which denotes a subarctic 15,000 DWT cargo ship. Nineteen SA-15 class ships were delivered by Finnish shipbuilders Wärtsilä and Valmet in 1982–1987, and as of 2020 two vessels remain in service.
context_section_description: Despite decades of service in some of the harshest operating conditions on the planet, no SA-15 class freighters have been lost. However, even the newest ships are over 30 years old and approaching the end of their economic life. The increasing operating costs of the old vessels with relatively large crews will eventually force the shipping companies currently operating old SA-15 class ships in their fleet to retire them and look for replacements especially for the more demanding arctic routes. Most SA-15 class freighters were transferred to southern routes for their final years and became a common sight especially in Chinese ports.
  In 2006–2011 MMC Norilsk Nickel built a series of five 14,500 DWT double acting container ships to replace the ageing fleet of MSCO-owned SA-15 class ships used to support the Norilsk-Dudinka operation. In November 2010 one of these new vessels capable of breaking ice up to 1.7 metres (5.6 ft) thick when operating astern, Monchegorsk, became the first ship to traverse the eastern part of Northern Sea Route without icebreaker assistance while sailing from Murmansk via Dudinka to Shanghai.
  The first SA-15 class ship to be scrapped, Kandalaksha, was sold for demolition in China in the spring of 2009. It was followed by the four ships operated by Bank Line — Boularibank was sold for recycling in India and Gazellebank, Tikeibank and Mahinabank in Bangladesh during the second half of 2009 — and Monchegorsk, which arrived at the breakers in China in late 2009. In 2010, they were joined by Kola and Norilsk, which were recycled in India and Huangpu, China, respectively. The first vessels of this type to be scrapped in 2011 were Arkhangelsk, withdrawn from the register on 17 May, and Emerald Sea, reported to be bound for breakers in Alang in late May. They were followed by Captain Kurbatskiy and Amderma, both of which were sold to Indian breakers in late 2011. The last ships of the original SA-15 series were scrapped in 2012 — Professor Barabanov was sold for recycling in Alang in February and Igarka in China in June. 2012 also saw the decommissioning of the first SA-15 Super class ships when Kapitan Man sailed to the breakers in May and Anatoliy Kolesnichenko in July, both ending their life in Chittagong. The only SA-15 class ship to be broken up in 2013, Vasiliy Burkhanov, arrived to the same final destination on 18 December 2013. No SA-15 class ships have been scrapped since and two SA-15 Super class ships, Kapitan Danilkin and Yuriy Arshenevskiy, remain in service as of 2020.
  As part of the Yamal LNG project, one of the alternatives that were studied for transporting LNG plant modules to the material offloading facility located in the port of Sabetta was a conversion of one of the remaining SA-15 class ships into a heavy-lift module carrier. If done, it would consist of removing all cargo handling gear ahead of the superstructure and cutting the hull down to the tweendeck in order to create a large level cargo deck for the oversized industrial modules.
caption: Kapitan Danilkin, photographed outside the port of Sabetta in April 2015, is the last SA-15 Super class ship ever built. She was delivered in 1987 and, like her sister ships, is now approaching the end of her economic life.
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