ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, May 17 (UPI) -- Next month Russia's state-owned Baltic Admiralty Shipyards expects to sign contracts to build two submarines for foreign customers.
RIA Novosti reported Wednesday that the St. Petersburg-based shipyard's General Director Vladimir Aleksandrov said, "We hope to sign a contract on building two submarines with a foreign client in June."
Aleksandrov declined to name the prospective purchasers, but added that the shipyard was negotiating with a number of foreign clients on submarine exports.
Aleksandrov said that one potential client was India, already one of Russia's biggest importers of military equipment.
The Admiralty Shipyards is a state-owned company and one of Russia's oldest manufacturers of submarines, with a lineage that predates the 1917 Russian Revolution. Beginning in 1910 the Admiralty Shipyards has built 300 submarines, including 41 nuclear-powered submarines.
The shipyard currently has a 15 percent share of world submarine sales, and has built Kilo-class diesel electric submarines for India, China and Iran.
