Mikko Niini News

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…

Oil and gas—and also mining—are the drivers today propelling Arctic maritime operations and the construction of new vessels able to operate in extreme latitudes. While the gas and oil resources can be recovered in the Arctic or far north and shipped to markets by sea or pipeline, the cost of doing must be balanced upon the global market price for those commodities. Ships and marine structures able to operate in the harsh conditions of the extreme latitudes require special designs and construction techniques.

After the acquisition of 66.4% of the shares by Finnish Industry Investment Ltd (fully owned by the State of Finland) Aker Arctic Technology Inc.’s extraordinary shareholders’ meeting today appointed the new Board of Directors for the company. Ole Johansson was nominated Chairman and Juha Marjosola Vice-Chairman of the Board. The board members are Ole Johansson, Juha Koskela (ABB Oy), Antti Kummu (Finnish Industry Investment), Valborg Lundegaard (Aker Engineering & Technology A/S) and Juha Marjosola (Finnish Industry Investment). Ole Johansson, BSc (Econ.) served as the President&CEO of Wärtsilä Corporation from 2000 to 2011. He is the Chairman of eQ Oyj and member of the Board of Svenska Handelsbanken AB.

The STX Turku Shipyard in Finland recently lost the order for a third Oasis class cruise ship and an option for a fourth to ”sister” shipyard STX France, when neither the owner, the financially troubled STX Group, nor the Finnish government wanted to inject a missing $64.3m to the capital of the shipyard. The yard is currently building two 97,000gt cruise ships for TUI Cruises. In January the shipyard delivered the world’s first LNG-fuelled big size passenger-car ferry, the Viking Grace for Baltic ferry operator Viking Line.

A plan has been organized by State Oceanic Administration (SOA),China, Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration (CAA)  and the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC) to build an advanced new icebreaking research vessel to meet the increased need of polar scientific research. The new vessel will be equipped with advanced scientific equipment for polar oceans research. The integrated survey systems include marine geological and geophysical equipment,  marine biological and ecological instruments. Meanwhile, helicopters with associated systems will also be provided. For the integrated environmental science programs the vessel will have marine and atmospheric observing and sampling capabilities closely related with climate change monitoring.

Arctech Helsinki Shipyard has been awarded a contract to build a multipurpose emergency and rescue vessel for Russian Ministry of Transport. The contract has been awarded together with Shipyard Yantar JSC. The value of the order is about EUR 76 million. The project will start immediately and the vessel will be delivered to the customer in December 2013. The hull of the vessel will be built by Shipyard Yantar, which is one of the shipyards belonging to United Shipbuilding Corporation,  the Russian part owner of Arctech.

The Estonian Maritime Administration has awarded a contract to Aker Arctic Technology Inc, Helsinki, Finland, for designing a new multipurpose icebreaker. The value of the agreement is close to EUR 6 million, including the development of the conceptual design, the basic design, preparation of the tender documents needed for a public procurement for building the ship, and construction supervision. "Aker Yards has built more than 60 percent of the icebreakers in the world. This…

Aker Arctic, which started operations as a new company in the beginning of 2005, has erected a modern new office and ice model test facility in the Vuosaari district of Helsinki. The premises were inaugurated today in the presence of Finland s Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Mauri Pekkarinen. Speeches were also heard from President Yrjö Julin with the compliments of Aker Yards, and Mikko Niini, Managing Director of Aker Arctic. In addition to the ice laboratory and model testing activities Aker Arctic is offering its own portfolio of conceptual ship designs for various yards, ship owners and offshore operators interested in operations in ice-infested cold waters. Aker Yards is the majority share holder of Aker Arctic with 62.5 %.

Aker Arctic Technology of Finland and the St. Petersburg based FSUE Admiralty shipyards signed a contract for a license and design including classification package of two 70,000 dwt double-acting Arctic shuttle tankers, which the yard is building for ZAO Sevmorneftegaz for the Prirazlomnoye oil field in the Arctic Ocean. The ships are the largest tankers so far built by the yard and will be delivered towards the end of 2007 and respectively 2008. The tankers are capable for worldwide operations, but they are specifically intended to operate independently between the offshore oil production platform and a transhipment terminal in Murmansk area.