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Aker Arctic News

01 Feb 2024

Aker Arctic Names Mika Hovilainen Interim CEO

(Photo: Eric Haun)

Aker Arctic, a Finnish engineering company specializing in the development of ice-going vessels, on Thursday announced it has appointed Mika Hovilainen as interim managing director and CEO following the departure of longtime CEO Reko-Antti Suojanen.Suojanen, who spent 19 years at Aker Arctic, including 10 as CEO, announced in December he would depart the company to explore new opportunities elsewhere.“I will pass the helm to Mika Hovilainen with good confidence. Mika has been working for a long time at Aker Arctic and has been leading our Ship Design activities…

18 Dec 2023

Aker Arctic CEO Suojanen to Step Down

“Developing, designing and building icebreaking vessels is very strong in Finland,” said Reko-Antti Suojanen, managing director at Aker Arctic Technology, an engineering company specializing in icebreakers. “We hold the position as the world leader in this segment.”
From left: Aker Arctic Technology managing director, Reko-Antti Suojanen, with director of sales and marketing, Arto Uuskallio. (Photo: Eric Haun)

Aker Arctic’s CEO Reko-Antti Suojanen announced he will leave his position in the company, while he and the Board of Aker Arctic have agreed that he will continue in his position as CEO until of January 31, 2024.Suojanen has benn CEO of Aker Arctic for 10 years, and the Board has commenced the search process to hire his successor. “We have developed and designed worldclass icebreakers and other ice going vessels and reached a position as the leading company in this segment. The company’s financial situation is excellent…

30 Nov 2023

FINLAND: ‘A Birthplace for Icebreakers’

Captain Pasi Järvelin on the bridge of Arctia icebreaker Polaris. Järvelin has more than 40 years’ experience in the maritime industry, including 36 years on icebreakers, and was part of the concept team that developed the vessel. (Photo: Eric Haun)

Finnish companies have designed about 80 percent of the world’s icebreakers, and about 60 percent of them have been built by Finnish shipyards.Finland is home to a strong and vibrant maritime cluster, with a mix of large, medium and small shipyards, as well as a deep pool of marine engineering expertise and a broad network of vessel equipment suppliers.As one of the world’s northernmost countries, Finland is also home to a fleet of icebreakers that keep imports and exports flowing through its harbors, even during the coldest winter months.

08 Mar 2023

Alaska's Qilak LNG Targets Asia with $5B Project to Compete with Russia

©alexlmx/AdobeStock

Qilak LNG plans to invest $5 billion in a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Alaska's North Slope to compete with Russia's Yamal project for Asian customers towards the end of this decade, its chief executive said. Major LNG importers such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are rethinking Russian supplies after sanctions on Moscow after it invaded Ukraine and more natural gas could be needed to produce lower emission and alternative fuels as nations try to reduce their carbon emissions.

13 Jun 2022

Argentinian Polar Icebreaker Project Kicks Off

Signing of the meeting minutes at the project kickoff meeting at Tandanor Shipyard in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From left: Miguel Tudino, President, Tandanor Shipyard and Lars Snellman, Project Manager, Aker Arctic. (Photo: Aker Arctic)

Finnish engineering firm Aker Arctic announced it has signed a deal with Argentinian shipbuilder Tandanor Shipyard to finalize the basic engineering design of a new polar vessel for Argentina. The project officially kicked off in Buenos Aires in May 2022.Aker Arctic had developed the concept design in 2014, but the project was shelved while awaiting the most appropriate way to follow on into the shipbuilding phase.Recently, the Argentinian government made the decision to upgrade Tandanor Shipyard’s facilities in order to build the polar vessel domestically.

08 Jun 2022

Kongsberg to Deliver CPP Systems for Four Finnish Navy Corvettes

Image courtesy Aker Arctic/Kongsberg Maritime

Kongsberg Maritime signed a contract with Aker Arctic that will see KM supply propellers and shafts for four newbuild SQ2020 corvette ships for the Finnish Navy.The process originated in September 2019 when the Finnish Defense Forces Logistics Command (FDFLOGCOM) contracted Aker Arctic to design and deliver full shaftline system to SQ2020 corvettes and the Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) yard in Finland to build the vessels. Kongsberg Maritime’s delivery will consist of CPP controllable pitch propellers and shafts for the four vessels: each corvette will be equipped with two propellers…

18 Jan 2022

Helsinki Shipyard Orders Main Equipment for Nornickel’s New Icebreaker

(Image: Aker Arctic)

Finnish shipbuilder Helsinki Shipyard Oy announced it has completed purchasing contracts for the main equipment of Nornickel’s icebreaker contracted last year, along with model tests in ice and open water for the icebreaker design developed by Aker Arctic.Russian mining company Norilsk Nickel ordered the new environmentally friendly icebreaker for its operations in the Yenisei River basin, Yenisei Bay and the Kara Sea securing access to Dudinka seaport both for its own fleet and its partners.

02 Aug 2021

Vard Delivers Expedition Cruise Ship to Ponant

(Photo: Vard)

Shipbuilder and designer Vard on Monday said it delivered the newly built expedition cruise ship Le Commandant Charcot for the French cruise company Ponant.The electric hybrid polar exploration vessel propelled with liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been developed by Ponant, Stirling Design International, Aker Arctic and Fincantieri subsidiary Vard. The vessel, classified as Polar Class 2, is specially designed to bring passengers to discover the polar world’s extreme unexplored lands such as the geographic North Pole (90 degrees North Latitude), the Weddell Sea, the Ross Sea and Peter I Island.

28 Jan 2021

Wärtsilä to Supply 36 Engines for New Arctic Gas Carriers

Six new 172,500 cbm LNG carrier vessels will be fitted with Wärtsilä 46DF dual-fuel engines, plus gas valve units and auxiliaries. (Image: Wärtsilä)

Finnish technology group Wärtsilä announced Thursday it has secured a deal to supply dual-fuel engines for six new 172,500-cubic-meter capacity liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers being built by South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) to serve the Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia’s Arctic waters.The icebreaking gas carriers were ordered by Russia's Sovcomflot and Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines in October 2020, and each ship will be fitted with six Wärtsilä 46DF dual-fuel engines, plus gas valve units and auxiliaries.

03 Nov 2020

Aker Arctic Designs New Swedish and Finnish Icebreakers

1974 icebreaker Atle (Photo: Aker Arctic)

Aker Arctic Technology Inc announced Tuesday it has signed a contract with the Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA) and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (FTIA) to develop new icebreakers to meet new challenges in Baltic Sea escort operations.The “next generation” icebreaker design will be capable of assisting the larger merchant ships entering Finnish and Swedish ports, incorporate latest environmental technologies and be ready for future fossil-free fuels, the Finnish engineering firm said. “Our foreign trade and competitiveness are based on year-round security of supply.

28 Oct 2020

DSME to Build Six Second-generation Arc7 LNG Carriers

File photo: The world's first icebreaking LNG carrier Christophe de Margerie entered service in 2017 (Photo: SCF Group)

South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has signed shipbuilding contracts with Russia's Sovcomflot and Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines for the construction of six icebreaking Arc7 liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers based on a newly developed design.The new ships will be the second generation of vessels engineered to transport LNG from the Russian Arctic, with special emphasis on year-round operation in the eastern sector of the Northern Sea Route.DSME…

15 Jul 2020

China's Polar Icebreaker Embarks on First Arctic Mission

(File photo: Polar Research Institute of China)

China's first domestically built polar icebreaker Xue Long 2 has set sail on its first mission to the Arctic, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reports.Xuez Long 2 (Snow Dragon 2) departed Shanghai Wednesday with a team of Chinese scientists on board to conduct investigations in areas including the Chukchi Rise, Canada Basin and the central Arctic Ocean, Xinhua reports. The voyage is expected to cover some 12,000 nautical miles and conclude in late September.The expedition is said to be organized by China's Ministry of Natural Resources to study biodiversity and ecosystems…

10 Oct 2019

Aker Arctic Wins Finnish Navy Supply Deal

3D renderings courtesy of Finnish Defense Forces

The Finnish Defense Forces Logistics Command and Aker Arctic Technology Inc. recently signed a contract for the design, delivery and integration of complete propulsion lines to four Pohjanmaa-class multi-role corvettes for the Finnish Navy. Construction of the vessels is scheduled to begin in 2022 and the four-strong squadron will achieve operational readiness in 2028.Aker Arctic’s scope of delivery includes ice-strengthened controllable pitch propellers and their pitch control mechanisms, propeller shafts, bearings and shaft seals.

12 Aug 2019

Aker Arctic's Icebreaking Ships Busy

Finnish engineering company Aker Arctic Technology Oy said that its Arctic condensate tanker Boris Sokolov has now been transporting gas condensate from Sabetta to various ports in Europe for more than half a year.Last spring, Aker Arctic’s expedition team carried out full-scale ice trials on the vessel based on our Aker ARC 212 design.In order to evaluate the performance of the vessel, the fully-laden Boris Sokolov deviated from her regular route and headed towards the Siberian coast to seek ice conditions that were closer to the tanker’s maximum independent icebreaking capability. The analysis of the results is currently ongoing.The new Chinese icebreaking polar research vessel…

02 Jan 2019

Aker Arctic Bronze Propellers for Ice-class Ships

Bronze has been the preferred material for open water and low ice class ship propellers for decades, said Finnish engineering company Aker Arctic that operates an ice model test basin in Helsinki."Few years ago, Aker Arctic began investigating the possibility of using it also in high ice class vessels. In November 2018, the first bronze propellers based on the new strength dimensioning criteria were installed on the Finnish ice class 1A ASD tug Calypso," said a statement from the designer of icebreakers.While bronze is not as strong as stainless steel, it has a number of benefits in marine applications such as good resistance against corrosion and cavitation damage. The material is also easy to work with both during manufacturing as well as when carrying out maintenance and repairs.

26 Nov 2018

Shipyards: FMG & its Quest to Build USCG Icebreakers

Image: Fincantieri Marine Group

As the U.S. Coast Guard moves to rebuild its icebreaker fleet we spoke with RADM Bruce Baffer (Ret.), head of Fincantieri’s effort to win the contract to build the Polar Security Cutters.The case for the U.S. to build a new class of icebreakers is strong. While news of global climate change and the shrinking ice caps at both poles is daily headline fodder, maritime navigation in and around the Arctic and Antarctic remains one of the most difficult and dangerous operating arenas on the high seas.

28 Aug 2018

Finland: A Hot-Bed of ICEBREAKER Technology

In 2016 the most recent Finnish icebreaker, Ib Polaris, was built at a cost of EUR123m. Arctia Ltd. received an LNG fueled double-acting PC4 class icebreaker capable of penetrating 1.8m thick level ice with a speed of 3.5 knots. Photo: Tuomas Romu and Arctia Ltd.

Finland is a traditional marine tech hub, with almost 90 company members in the Finnish Maritime Industries association. While the country has a storied maritime history across many sectors, based on geographic locale, it’s Arctic and ice marine technology is second to none, and it’s hoping the U.S. Coast Guard is taking notice.The Finnish maritime industry is hoping to get involved in developing the new icebreakers for the U.S. Coast Guard polar icebreaker program. Ulla Lainio…

15 Jun 2018

Aker Arctic Tests Autonomous Ship Model

(Photo: Aker Arctic)

A Finnish engineering firm known for its ice-going vessel expertise says it is studying another area of ship technology: autonomous vessel operations.Aker Arctic says it recently successfully tested an autonomous ship model at its ice model test laboratory in Helsinki.The test, which was carried out in ice-free waters, demonstrated the ship model’s ability to detect obstacles in the tank utilizing onboard sensors, maneuver around them without operator input and moor itself automatically to a target pier.While Aker Arctic’s ice laboratory is normally used to test model icebreaking vessels…

18 Dec 2017

Ponant Orders Electric/LNG Icebreaker Cruise Ship

(Image: Stirling Design International)

French cruise line Ponant has ordered the world's first hybrid electric cruise icebreaker with liquefied natural gas (LNG) propulsion, due to take passengers to extremely remote polar locales from 2021. The polar-ready luxury liner will be constructed by Fincantieri subsidiary Vard Holdings Limited, who secured the approximately $320 million shipbuilding contract. The hull will be built at Vard Tulcea in Romania, with delivery from Vard Søviknes in Norway scheduled for the second quarter of 2021.

07 Sep 2017

Aker Arctic’s Ice Lab is Back in Acton

(Photo: Aker Arctic)

The Finnish icebreaking season typically ends in May. Around the same time, the cooling system in Aker Arctic’s ice laboratory in Helsinki, Finland, is turned off and the model basin is allowed to warm up for the annual summer maintenance break. Aker Arctic operates its own ice model testing facility at the company’s main office in Helsinki, Finland. Using the in-house developed FGX model ice, the 75-meter ice tank can be used to get reliable icebreaking performance predictions for ice-going ships and study other ice-related phenomena in model scale.

14 Aug 2017

EU Project Aims to Improve Arctic Shipping Safety

Image: SEDNA Consortium

A three-year, €6.5 million ($7.7  million) research project has been launched to address safety and efficiency in Arctic ship operations. Funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 program, SEDNA sets out to develop a risk-based approach to Arctic navigation, ship design and maritime operations. Recent years have seen a rapid increase in shipping operations in Arctic regions, as ice cover has reduced due to global warming. While this offers the potential to save significantly on voyage times…

11 Aug 2017

Arctic Thaw helps Russian Shipping

Arctic thaw aids shipping most along Russian coast; Russia to start LNG exports from Yamal in late 2017. Russian shipping in the Arctic is benefiting from winds that are driving the oldest and thickest sea ice towards North America, further opening a remote region that is thawing amid global warming, scientists say. The thinning Russian ice could help liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers, due to start exports from Russia's Yamal Peninsula in late 2017, to navigate an icy route east to Asia for more than a planned six months of the year, they said. Almost all attention on Arctic shipping has focused on how global warming is shrinking the extent of ice around the North Pole, opening a summertime short-cut route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

30 Mar 2017

First Icebreaking LNG Carrier Ready for Service

Photo: DSME

The world’s first icebreaking liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier, Christophe de Margerie, has berthed at the gas terminal at Sabetta Port in Russia, becoming the first vessel to do so. Built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (DSME) in South Korea, the tanker was designed to order for SCF Group, specifically to serve Russia’s Yamal LNG project, and transport LNG year round in the difficult ice conditions of the Ob Bay and Kara Sea. On March 30 the vessel’s master…

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