Finnish maritime cluster

Freedom of the Seas under construction in February 2006, surrounded by sea ice

The Finnish Maritime Cluster is a cluster of companies in maritime industries in Finland. In 2001 the total turnover was estimated at 11.4 billion euros with 47,000 people employed in shipbuilding and related industries.

History

Small trading ships similar to Jacobstads Wapen were built in Finnish coastal towns in the 18th century. Small scale shipyards continued to exist well into the 20th century. The first large scale shipyard was the galley dry dock at Sveaborg built in the mid 18th century, which serviced the ships that won one of the largest sea battles in history.

The first shipyard in Turku was established in 1732. After the Crimean War William Crichton acquired a workshop and built a new shipyard, which later was merging smaller shipyards and developed into Crichton-Vulcan, merged with Wärtsilä between 1936 and 1938.

Soviet trade

A major boost to Finnish shipbuilding was the war reparations paid to the Soviet Union after WW II. They forced a rapid industrialization of Finland and the creation of a large metal industry in addition to the traditional papermaking and forest industries. By 1953, the shipbuilding industry had six time the capacity it did in 1944.

Bilateral trade with the Soviet Union forced Finnish shipyards to build ships with a high percentage of total value of Finnish origin.^{[citation needed]} All major components of the finished products needed to be produced domestically. The high percentage of domestic components continues even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the lucrative trade deals.^{[citation needed]} While ships built in other European shipyards are a collection of components from around Europe and around the world, cruise ships built in Finland can have over 90% of their total value in Finnish components and labor.^{[citation needed]}

Major companies

• STX Finland Cruise Oy with shipyards in Turku, Helsinki and Rauma
• ABB, formerly Strömberg, producer of Azipod Azimuth thrusters and electrical systems.
• Hollming Group, now part of Aker Finnyards; producer of Aquamaster (now Rolls Royce) Z-drive Azimuth thrusters
• Kone Corporation
  • Cargotec (Split from KONE in 2005, formerly Navire Cargo Gear and MacGregor) provides cargo-handling solutions.
• Wärtsilä provides maritime diesel engines.
  • Sanitec, a former subsidiary of Wärtsilä, provides closed loop sanitation systems.
• Steerprop, Rauma, Azimuth Propulsors

Ships

Six Finnish icebreakers docked for the summer season at Katajanokka, Helsinki

The Mir submersible

Icebreakers

• MS Fennica and MS Nordica
• Nuclear powered icebreakers [1]
  • NS Taimyr (1989)
  • NS Vaigach (1990)
• MV Sampo (1961)

Submarines

• MIR (submersible)
• Vesikko

Cruise liners

• Oasis class (2009, 220,000 tons), formerly known as Project Genesis
• Freedom class (158,000 tons)
• Voyager class (142,000 tons)
• Spirit class (85,700 tons)
• Vision class (81,500 tons)
• Fantasy class (70,390 tons)
• Royal Princess (44,348 tons, 1984)
• Song of Norway (1970)

Cruiseferries

• M/S Color Fantasy (2004)
• M/S Silja Symphony (1991)
• M/S Silja Serenade (1990)
• GTS Finnjet (1977)

Warships

• Ilmarinen (1931), first battleship with a diesel-electric drive
• Helsinki class missile boat
• Rauma class missile boat
• Hamina class missile boat
• Tuuli class hovercraft

External links

• Finnish Maritime Society :: The Finnish Maritime Cluster Study
• THE FINNISH MARITIME CLUSTER 2003
• Aker Yards
• Developing bigger and better cruise ships at hightechfinland.com