ANTALYA, November 13. /TASS/. The orders for new ice class ships to operate on the Northern Sea Route will be placed at Russian shipyards at the first instance, CEO of the Russian state corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev told reporters.

"We understand Rosatom will require overall up to about 40 ice class ships. These are container carriers, bulk carriers, and general cargo ships. Certainly, this is a program for ten, for fifteen years of such strong ice class shipbuilding. This program will require very serious placement at shipyards. Russian shipyards will be the first with whom we will work in this sense and determine forms and paths of cooperation," the chief executive said.

"We have an extensive experience in building shipbreakers: the Series 22220 is being built at the Baltic Shipyard, the Leader icebreaker is being constructed at Zvezda shipyards. Based on this experience, the first package of ice class shipbuilding will be certainly offered to Russian shipbuilders, Russian companies," Likhachev added.