Sildarvinnslan Offer Accepted for 90-Metre Trawler Reportedly Built for Russian Owner

Icelandic fishing company Síldarvinnslan has said that its offer to purchase a newly built freezer trawler owned by a Turkish shipyard had been accepted.

Síldarvinnslan said work is underway to finalise the purchase agreement, including delivery arrangements and technical matters. It will release further details once the agreement has been signed.

The vessel is expected to replace the freezer trawler Blængur as part of the company’s fleet renewal programme.

Síldarvinnslan Chief Executive Gunnþór Ingvason said that the trawler will need to be adapted to the company’s fisheries.

A date for the vessel’s arrival in Neskaupstaður has not been set, and the company has not decided what will happen to Blængur.

According to Síldarvinnslan, the new trawler is 90 metres long with a beam of 18 metres and a main engine rated at 6,100 kW. It has a 2,700-cubic-metre freezer hold and a freezing capacity of about 250 tonnes per day.

The vessel also has a fishmeal and fish oil plant with a 600-cubic-metre meal hold.

According to Turkish media, Russian company Tikhrybcom ordered the trawler in November 2020 to fish for Alaska pollock in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea, with delivery planned for the middle of 2023. Construction was completed, but US sanctions against Russia prevented its delivery.

Blængur was built in Spain in 1973 and converted to a freezer trawler in 1985. Work in 2000 lengthened the vessel to 79 metres. Síldarvinnslan acquired the vessel in June 2015.