Finnish Government News

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.

One of the world's largest cruise companies Royal Caribbean Group announced it has signed a declaration with the aim to chart the way forward for innovative and sustainable shipbuilding in Finland.The declaration, signed with the Finnish government, represented by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (MEAE) and shipbuilder Meyer Turku Oy, has been signed with the goal to advance innovation, strengthen competitiveness and bolster the maritime industry's ecosystem, U.S.

Finnish engineering firm Konecranes and cargo handling machinery maker Cargotec plan to merge to help speed up innovation and reap savings, they said on Thursday, sending both of their shares sharply higher.The boards of the companies, which provide road and sea-cargo handling machinery and services to industries, factories, ports and terminals, said they had signed a plan under which Konecranes would be folded into Cargotec in a merger of equals.Cargotec shares jumped around 25%, while Konecranes stock was up around 17%, giving a combined market value of around 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion

Ferry operator Viking Line said Tuesday it will restart passenger service for essential travel after the Finnish government annouced plans to gradually ease some restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.Passenger service will be restricted to travel for work and other travel defined by the authorities until at least May 31, the cruise ferry operator said.Four of Viking Line’s seven vessels will continue their service between Finland and Sweden, the Åland Islands and Estonia. People will be able to continue travelling as usual between the Finnish mainland and Åland.

The Finnish shipbuilder Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) won the contract from the Finnish Ministry of Defence for the construction of four new Pohjanmaa-class naval vessels, for the total cost of EUR 1.3 billion.The design phase will resume with immediate effect and construction of the first vessel will start at the shipyard in 2022. The Finnish Government approved the procurement, valued at approximately EUR 700 million, yesterday, September 19, 2019.Rauma Marine Constructions Oy and the Finnish Defence Forces will formally sign the agreement for the construction of the multipurpose corvettes on September 26, 2019. CEO Jyrki Heinimaa is pleased that Rauma’s long traditions of building Finnish naval ships will continue.

A Finnish company said on Thursday it planned to develop a railway connection between north Finland and Norway's Kirkenes port to link with potential Arctic shipping routes at an estimated cost of between 3-5 billion euros ($3.4-5.6 billion).Global warming has reduced ice coverage in the Arctic, opening up the possibility of new and shorter shipping lanes between north Europe and Asia, though control of routes is disputed.Finland's Finest Bay Area Development said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Norway's Sør-Varanger Utvikling to investigate how to build a railway and its impact on the environment, society and the economy."An Arctic railway would connect Finland to the Northeast Passage," Kustaa Valtonen, a director at Finest Bay Area Development, said in a statement.

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…

The Finnish government has voiced concern over surprise inspections on Finnish cargo ships visiting Russian ports in recent weeks, saying delays had been a problem for shipping companies. Neighboring Russia carried out seven thorough inspections in the past two weeks on Finnish ships at St Petersburg and other ports, without giving a specific reason, a government minister said on Friday. Such inspections usually take place for Finnish ships only a few times a year globally. “The inspections have been exceptional ...

Russian state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) is looking for a new owner for its Arctech Helsinki shipyard as sanctions against the holding company hamper business, the head of the shipyard said on Tuesday. The shipyard is the world’s biggest builder of vessels that can navigate ice-covered waters, and it has expected more orders as melting sea ice opens the Arctic to more shipping, mining and oil drilling. However, following the Ukraine crisis and back-to-back East-West sanctions, Russian ownership has complicated the shipyard’s access to finance.

Maritime Reporter & Engineering News recently visited Finnish shipbuilding giant Meyer Turku, whose sights are set on building bigger. It is safe to say that when shipbuilding commenced in the town of Turku, Finland in 1737, the company building wooden boats at the time could not have envisioned the enormous vessels that would eventually be built by the site’s current occupant, Meyer Turku. The Meyer family, operator of the German shipbuilding company Meyer Werft, took over the…

The Finnish government's innovation investment arm, Tekes, said that it is making a multi-year commitment to funding collaborative research and development of autonomous, unmanned ships to ply the world’s oceans in the not-so-distant future. Tekes said in a statement that this research area is a priority for the Finnish government and would contribute to the nation's competitiveness. "Digitalization has a strong role in the development of the competitiveness of the Finnish maritime cluster. Autonomous maritime ecosystem is a concrete action of Finnish digitalization strategy and Finnish Marine Industries envisioning," says the statement. The aim is to provide world's first unmanned maritime products, services and vivid ecosystem by 2025.

Norsepower Oy Ltd., the leading provider of low maintenance, software operated, and data verified auxiliary wind propulsion systems, has been selected to receive €2.6 million in funding to further its research and development of the Norsepower Rotor Sail Solution technology. The new models of the technology will include the world’s largest ever Flettner rotor. Awarded by the European Commission and the Finnish Government’s funding agency for Innovation, Tekes, the funding will be used by Norsepower to optimize its Rotor Sail Solution to deliver greater fuel savings and enhanced ROI.

The Finnish government said on Thursday it would sell 49.9 percent of the shares in defence group Patria to Norway's state-controlled Kongsberg Gruppen for 272 million euros ($308 million). Finland, which will retain the remaining stake, had struggled to find a suitable industrial investor for Patria after it had been forced to buy Airbus Group out of the company in 2014. Patria is seen as a nationally important company as its products include tanks and mortar systems and it handles maintenance tasks for Finland's military forces. Last year, Patria had sales of 428 million euros with an operating profit of 47 million euros. The partnership with Kongsberg will help Patria grow in a consolidating industry, the government said.

Finland-based Cinia Group began laying the new submarine Sea Lion data cable in Helsinki, Finland. The new fibre optic sea cable will provide a direct, low latency and cyber secure internet backbone connection between Finland and Germany. Linking Cinia's existing countrywide data network in Finland with network nodes in Central Europe, the new sea cable is expected to increase interest of data center operators and data intensive organizations to set up operations in Finland. "The sea cable initiative builds the future of Finland based on our existing strengths," said Eero Heliövaara, Director General at the Prime Minister's Office. "A direct data connection between Finland and Central Europe is an important enabler of both domestic economic growth and international investments.

The Meyer family, operating the shipbuilding company Meyer Werft in Germany, and the Finnish State acquired Turku shipyard from STX Europe in September 2014. Meyer Werft took up 70 percent of the shares, and the State of Finland purchased 30 percent of the share capital through the Finnish Industry Investment Ltd (FII). As usual for the FII´s investment policy, it exits from its investments. In the case of the Turku shipyard, it was agreed that Meyer had a call option to buy FII’s minority stake in the shipyard. Meyer has now decided to further invest in Turku shipyard using the call option. “At the time of the purchase Meyer was only…

Innovation, superior technology and competitiveness are the characteristics that have brought the Finnish maritime industry world repute. Its well-knit maritime cluster responsible for achieving a high level of production has propelled it into prominence in the global market. Extreme conditions during winter have set technological and quality demands on Finnish shipping which, in turn has contributed towards the emergence of a competitive maritime industry in Finland. The Finnish Maritime and Offshore Cluster (incl. Marine industries, shipping and port operations in private and public sectors) is one of the central industries in the Finnish technology industries.

The French-German consortium Areva-Siemens , the supplier of Finland's much-delayed Olkiluoto-3 nuclear reactor, has increased its claim against Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), TVO said late on Friday. TVO and Areva have traded accusations about who is to blame for delays and extra costs, and the International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC) arbitration court is processing a dispute on cost overruns between the two sides. Areva-Siemens in September said the start date of the reactor, which is planned to be Finland's fifth and biggest nuclear unit, will be pushed back to late 2018 - almost a decade later than originally planned. TVO on Friday said Areva-Siemens raised its claim against it to 3.5 billion euros ($4.4 billion) from the previous 2.6 billion euros at the ICC arbitration.

With investment support from the Finnish Government of 185 million NOK Skangass has decided to build a new import terminal for LNG. The terminal will be completed in 2016. Skangass plans to create an efficient LNG logistics chain in the Pori area. When the terminal is ready in Autumn 2016 it will have a capacity of 30,000 cubic meters. Skangass has already selected the main contractor and suppliers for the project. ”The investment decision will result in speedy progress in the construction project. It is highly important that the Pori terminal is completed on schedule and that we can launch deliveries to our existing and new customers.

The Finnish government said it had teamed up with German shipbuilder Meyer Werft to consider buying a troubled local shipyard from South Korea's STX Offshore & Shipbuilding. The government in 2012 faced heavy criticism for not providing a loan to the Turku shipyard in southern Finland, which contributed to its loss of a 1 billion euro ($1.4 billion) order for cruise ships along with hundreds of potential jobs. The government said on Thursday it could join with an industrial partner, family-owned Meyer Werft, to take over the shipyard.

Finland and Estonia will have to return to the drawing board with a joint gas terminal project after the European Commission said a proposed two-terminal model would not be eligible for subsidies, the Finnish government said. Estonia and Finland proposed in February to build two new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on either side of the Gulf of Finland and a pipeline connecting the two countries. They had agreed to act jointly after competing for more than a year over a project to build an LNG terminal. "The European Commission did not approve the model proposed to them," Esa Harmala, head of the energy department at Finland's economy ministry said on Wednesday. Asked whether this meant that the two-terminal model was dead, he said that that was not necessarily the case.

Germany's closely held Meyer Werft and the Finnish government are nearing a deal to buy the Turku shipyard in southwestern Finland from STX Europe , the Finnish economy ministry said on Monday. STX Europe belongs to Korean STX. The Turku shipyard specialises in building cruise ships and has suffered from a lack of orders in recent years. STX said last year it was looking to sell some of its shipyards. Finland's government in 2012 faced heavy criticism for not providing a loan to the shipyard…

German cruise ship builder strengthens its yards. MEYER WERFT joins forces with the STX Finland shipyard in Turku. Following weeks of negotiations the Finnish Government and MEYER WERFT signed a share purchase agreement with the current owner STX Europe. With its 70% stake MEYER WERFT takes the industrial leadership of the new company. At present some 1,300 employees and a specialized supplier network are involved in the construction of the cruise ship Mein Schiff 4 for the German cruise operator TUI Cruises from Hamburg.

The Finnish government granted 65.2 million euros (84.22 million US dollar) in subsidies to build three small liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to cut on use of fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in industry, the economy ministry said on Thursday. Finland is building a network of LNG terminals along its coastline, expecting that LNG will be increasingly used as a shipping fuel in the Baltic Sea. "With the help of this support, Manga LNG Oy, Skangass Oy, and Oy Aga Ab will build LNG terminals in Tornio, Pori and Rauma respectively," the ministry said in a statement. Manga LNG is a joint venture, which includes Finnish stainless steel maker Outokumpu Oyj.