MURMANSK, December 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Murmansk Shipping Company is set to sign contracts with Chinese shipbuilders on the construction of 12 ice-class bulker ships, the company's general director said on Thursday.

"We will soon sign contracts with Chinese manufacturers to build 12 ice-class bulkers with a deadweight of 30,000 tons each," Alexander Medvedev told a press conference.

"It's no secret that the cost of building a ship in Russia and Europe remains high. Therefore it is profitable to build ships in China, where the quality of work is constantly rising and prices still remain economically beneficial," he said.

Medvedev did not name the sums and terms of contracts, only saying that the company, based in the Murmansk Region by the Barents Sea, had already cooperated with the Chinese manufacturers involved.

Another ship owner, the Volga-Baltic Company, managing the Volga and Northwestern shipping companies, announced on Thursday its plans to build 10 ships with a deadweight of 5,000 tons each at wharfs belonging to China's Honguang company.

Asked why the company did not place orders with Russian shipbuilders, general director Igor Tonkovidov said: "The cost is 1.5 times lower in China than in Russia."