Rosatom Fuel Division and Petrovietnam sign MOU to build additive manufacturing center in Vietnam

Rosatom's Fuel Division has signed a memorandum of understanding with Petrovietnam to establish an additive manufacturing center in Vietnam. The agreement, signed by Ilya Kavelashvili, head of Rosatom Fuel Division's additive manufacturing business unit, and Petrovietnam Deputy CEO Phan Tu Giang, outlines a phased project including a technical audit of Petrovietnam's production processes, equipment selection, and center construction. Site surveys are scheduled for July 2026, with potential commissioning as early as 2027. The center will focus on producing complex components for drilling and pumping equipment, reducing downtime through rapid prototyping, and lowering dependence on imported spare parts.

This partnership fits the pattern of state-aligned AM capacity export, where a nuclear or energy incumbent leverages its in-house AM expertise to secure downstream industrial influence in a partner country. For Rosatom, this is not a one-off machine sale but a turnkey industrial solution bundle-equipment, materials, training, and technical support-mirroring its earlier deployments in Belarus and India. The deal also opens a path to localized printer assembly in Vietnam, which would give Rosatom a Southeast Asian beachhead at a time when Chinese AM OEMs are aggressively expanding their own regional service networks. For Petrovietnam, the center addresses a classic oil-and-gas pain point: long lead times for replacement parts in remote or offshore operations. The phased approach-audit, configure, build, operate-lowers the adoption risk for a first-time AM user in a capital-intensive vertical.

From an expert standpoint, the center's success will hinge on whether Rosatom can deliver reliable process qualification for oilfield-grade alloys and sustain the materials supply chain across borders. Petrovietnam's engineers will need hands-on training to move beyond prototyping into production-grade part certification. If the 2027 timeline holds, this will be one of the faster state-to-state AM center buildouts in Southeast Asia, but the real test is repeatability-whether the center can produce certified parts for rotating equipment, not just demonstration pieces.