The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency selected Helsinki Shipyard (DNY Finland Oy) to build Finland’s new icebreaker called Aino. Construction of the icebreaker will begin next year and is scheduled for completion in September 2029.
The vessel will replace Voima, Finland’s 72-year-old icebreaker, and will safeguard Finland’s year-round maritime traffic in the Baltic Sea.
Aino is a B+ class icebreaker capable of opening a 25-meter ice channel. It is 96 meters long and 24 meters wide.
Helsinki Shipyard managing director Kim Salmi said the contract was a natural continuation of the yard’s long icebreaker-building history.
“It is fitting that the successor to Voima will be built at the same shipyard where Finnish icebreaking history has been made for more than a century,” Salmi said.
Helsinki Shipyard will be responsible for the overall shipyard delivery and assembly of Aino working closely with its affiliate Sata Shipbuilding in Pori.
Sata Shipbuilding will be responsible for steel production and block fabrication.
Helsinki and Pori shipyards are part of Inocea, a British-owned international maritime industrial group with operations in Finland, Canada and the United States.
Together, the Finnish facilities form an integrated shipbuilding platform covering the entire value chain, from design and steel fabrication to vessel assembly and delivery.
“We are extremely proud to have been selected to build the Aino icebreaker. Aino is being designed for Finnish conditions and the needs of Finnish winter navigation, and it will be built in Finland together with the Finnish maritime industry network,” stated Mika Heiskanen, chief executive officer for Davie’s Shipyards in Finland.
The shipyard also built Voima, which Aino will replace, which has been serving Finland since 1954.
