Helsinki Shipyard (company)

Helsinki Shipyard was established in May 2019 to take over the shipbuilding activities of Arctech Helsinki Shipyard at Hietalahti shipyard in downtown Helsinki.[3][4] The company had become an economic burden for its Russian owners after the European Union and the United States imposed economic sanctions on the shipyard's Russian state-owned parent company, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), as a response to the Russian involvement in the unrest in Ukraine. In early 2018, it was reported that USC was looking for a new majority owner for Arctech Helsinki Shipyard which was making heavy cumulative losses and had been unable to attract new orders since 2016.[5] In April 2019, the Russian government finally authorized the sale of the shipyard.[6][7]

The sale of the shipbuilding operations in Finland was announced on 15 May 2019. In preparation of the transaction, a new shipbuilding company Helsinki Shipyard would be established to take over the assets and operations of Arctech Helsinki Shipyard at Hietalahti Shipyard. It would then be sold to Algador Holdings, a private Russian company owned by Rishat Bagautdinov ja Vladimir Kasyanenko while Arctech would remain as a subsidiary of the United Shipbuilding Corporation and continue shipbuilding operations in Russia as a shareholder of the Saint Petersburg-based Nevsky Shipyard. Victor Olerskiy, the former deputy Russian transport minister and the former head of Federal Agency of Maritime and River Transportation, was appointed as the chairman of the board of the new company.[3][4] The managing director of Helsinki Shipyard, Carl Gustaf Rotkirch, has previously held manager positions in other Finnish shipbuilding companies.[2][8]

Shortly after the change of ownership, the new owners hinted that the first shipbuilding order for the new company would be announced within a month from its founding.[8] In late May 2019, Hufvudstadsbladet reported that the shipyard had signed a letter of intent for the construction of two 150-to-160-passenger expedition cruise ships to an undisclosed buyer.[9] On 27 June, the shipyard confirmed an order for two 113-metre (371 ft) expedition cruise ships with capacity of 157 passengers under the name "Project Vega". While Kommersant initially reported that the ships would be built for Vodohod, a Russian shipping company owned by the same people who acquired the Helsinki shipyard,[10] in 2020 it was revealed that the vessels would be operated by the revived British cruise line Swan Hellenic.[11] Steel block production began at Western Baltija Shipbuilding in Klaipėda, Lithuania, on 27 April 2020 and hull assembly of the first vessel, SH Minerva, began with keel laying in Helsinki on 24 September 2020.[12] The Polar Class 5 vessels will be delivered in 2021 and 2022.[13]

On 20 October 2020, Finnish media reported that Helsinki Shipyard was about to sign a shipbuilding contract for a third expedition cruise ship for Swan Hellenic.[14][15] On the following day, the shipyard confirmed a 150 million euro order for a 12,000 GT Polar Class 6 luxury cruise ship with a capacity of 196 passengers in 96 cabins. The construction of the ship will begin in summer 2021 and it will be delivered in the end of 2022.[16]