Russia and Finland will jointly build an icebreakers

The Russian Federation and Finland have set up a joint venture to build icebreaking vessels for the high latitudes of the Arctic. Not long ago, the organization received an order for the first two icebreakers for heavy ice conditions.

The joint venture has the name Arctech Helsinki Shipyard Oy and has already begun to fulfill the order, the cost of which is 200 million US dollars. New vessels will be able to overcome ice thickness of 1.7 meters and operate at low temperatures to minus 35 degrees Celsius. Two icebreakers will be operated in the interests of the offshore oil field in the Far East.

The agreement on the creation of a joint venture was recently signed at the meeting in St. Petersburg of Vladimir Putin — the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation with his Finnish counterpart Mari Kiviniemi. The Russian United Shipbuilding Corporation and the Finnish shipyard STX Finland Oy have equal shares in the new company.

In the period until 2020, the Russian Federation will need at least 60 sea vessels, including 18 tankers and 9 icebreakers, three of which are nuclear.