Yuriy Boyko, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, visited Kherson Shipyard (KhSY) on 17 September 2013 as part of his working visit to Kherson region.

During his visit, Mr. Boyko participated in the celebratory delivery ceremony where SVL UNITY, a complete RST27 design tanker, was turned over to the customer, SVL Group (Malta). SVL UNITY is the last vessel in a series of complete RST27 design product carrier tankers built by KhSY.

Oleg Fedak, the General Director of KhSY, handed over a Delivery and Acceptance Certificate to the customer's representative, captain of SVL UNITY Igor Voronin, wishing the ship fair winds and a following sea.

Yuriy Boyko, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, congratulated the shipyard's staff on their success on behalf of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

‘This is a great event for all of us, because a Ukrainian company has produced a series of complete tankers for the first time in several years. I am positive that this shipyard is going to produce many more state-of-the-art vessels, and that means new jobs will be created, salaries will be paid, our country's international profile will improve and all Ukrainian industries will develop, because shipbuilding is a locomotive pulling together a wide range of other industries,’ said the Vice Prime Minister.

After the celebratory ceremony, Mr. Boyko and other honourable guests came on board of SVL UNITY to find out more about the vessel's equipment and management systems.

Reference 

The vessel's overall length is 140.85 meters, its width being 16.86 meters, and its hull height – 6 meters. The total holding capacity of six cargo tanks and two slop tanks is 8,100 cubic meters, the sea deadweight is 6,980 tonnes with the water-draught of 4.20 meters, the river deadweight is 5,378 tonnes with the water-draught of 3.60 meters; the vessel's operational speed is 10 knots. The cargo system is designed to handle two cargo varieties simultaneously.

The RST27 project was designed by the Marine Engineering Bureau (MEB, Odessa).

Kherson Shipyard (KhSY) was founded in 1951. The company is part of Smart Maritime Group, the shipbuilding business of Smart-Holding. Within recent 7 years, the shipyard built and handed over to its customers 38 vessels, including the drilling rig supply vessels – anchor handling vessels and refrigerated cargo ships, river tankers, railroad ferry-boats, complete Chelsea-type dry cargo carriers, etc.