for the Baltic Sea, polar icebreakers, even was ordered by a Greek shipping com- Mr. Reko-Antti Suojanen, CEO for Aker
two nuclear-powered icebreaker ships – pany for use in the North-East Passage. Arctic Technology Inc.
and the latest example ’Polaris’ that is Icebreaking tankers have been ar ound for ”One of our strengths is that we have
powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG),” some time already, but this is the first one always been able to produce purpose-built
Mustamäki points out. of them being built in Finland.” icebreakers, designed specifically for cer-
”We are also in the process of build- ”The tanker will be able to break ice tain operating environments. We keep in
ing a series of multi-purpose icebreakers with a thickness of 1.8 metres, as it should touch with the ship operators and under-
for the offshore industry. Six of them are be able to in the region of the North-East stand their needs.”
ready and the seventh one under construc- Passage. According to schedule, the tanker ”Furthermore, Finland has a good
tion.” will be ready for delivery in the late sum- network of maritime industry operators
mer of 2018.” and subcontractors who constantly carry
These multi-purpose vessels will be
operated in the Sahalin area. In that region, Mr. Mustamäki notes that approxi- the thickness of ice is largely the same as mately 60 percent of the icebreakers cur- Mr. Suojanen emphasises that the
in the Baltic Sea area but the unpredicta- rently in operation worldwide have been development of new propulsion tech-
bility of currents might be a challenge for built at Helsinki shipyard. niques has made modern new-genera-
icebreaker operations.
”In the future, the number of LNG-
out R&D work for their products.”
tion icebreakers possible.
powered icebreakers is definitely going ”Azimuthing propulsion technology
FURTHER DEMAND FOR to increase. There will be more demand makes new icebreakers much more effi-
LNG-POWERED SHIPS for environmentally-friendly icebreakers,” cient and capable than their predeces-
After more traditional icebreaker tech- Mustamäki expects. sors. Modern icebreakers can be utilised
for breaking packed ice and other types
niques, the Azipod propulsion was intro-
MORE POWER AND
duced in the 2000s.
”These days, nearly all new icebreak-
of very thick ice.”
NEW CAPABILITIES
ers carry some sort of propulsion device Design for new icebreakers is largely being
capable of 360-degree rotation. This will carried out in Finland by Aker Arctic Tech-
improve the steerability and icebreaking nology.
Icebreaking capabilities can also be
designed into the cargo vessels.
”Dozens of ships today used in the
Northern Sea Route on year-around oper-
capacity of icebreakers,” says Mustamäki. ”In the field of icebreaker construc- ation are all developed by Aker Arctic over
”Currently, we are building an arctic tion and design, Finland has plenty of the past decades. Today, new ones are
tanker capable of icebreaking. The ship experience and special know-how,” says being built at several shipyards.”
”These big and powerful ships can
provide reliable and effective transport of
”
The USCG
project
is proceeding
gradually.
goods in the arctic region. The new first
icebreaking-type LNG carriers which start
operation in December 2017 – allowing
the massive LNG deliveries from the arc-
tic – are a good example,” Suojanen says.
GOING FOR NEW MARKET AREAS
Also, modern icebreakers tend to be multi-
purpose vessels. They can be utilised for
transporting passengers, towing and off-
shore operations, or oilspill response activ-
ities.
”Even in the 1990s, oil and gas indus-
tries operated multi-purpose icebreakers,
but newer vessels have a wider variety of
functions. Many of them can be operated
as environmental research vessels,” Suo-
janen mentions.
One of the possible future projects
for Aker Arctic is the design for new ice-
breakers for the U.S. Coast Guard. Six new
seatec 1/2018 29