Perno shipyard
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Perno shipyard is a
shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
in
Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...
, southwest
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, that specialises in building
cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...
s,
passenger ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
, special vessels and offshore projects. The yard area is . The yard is operated by Meyer Turku Oy. The
dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
is long, wide and deep, and equipped with two
bridge crane An overhead crane, commonly called a bridge crane, is a type of crane found in industrial environments. An overhead crane consists of two parallel rails seated on longitudinal I-beams attached to opposite steel columns by means of brackets. ...
s with capacities of 600 tonnes and 1,200 tonnes. The newer bridge crane with a capacity of 1,200 tonnes is the largest in the
Nordic region The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Swed ...
.


History


Construction

Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include technol ...
's
shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...
grew heavily in the 1960s and over time the old yard area on both banks of the Aura river that runs through Turku became too small. When
Tankmar Horn Tankmar Horn (16 August 1924 – 16 March 2018) was a Finnish diplomat, economist, and businessman. Due to his father's position as army officer, Horn lived in different places in his youth. During the Second World War he studied in Berlin and ...
was appointed the new general manager of Wärtsilä in 1971, the idea of a modern "ship factory" started to evolve, inspired by the Swedish
Götaverken Götaverken was a shipbuilding company that was located on Hisingen, Gothenburg. During the 1930s it was the world's biggest shipyard by launched gross registered tonnage. It was founded in 1841, and went bankrupt in 1989. History The company w ...
Arendal Arendal () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county in southeastern Norway. Arendal belongs to the Districts of Norway, region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the munici ...
yard.Knorring: ''Crichton-Vulcanista Turun telakkaan.'' pp. 125–134. The area selected for the new yard was in
Perno Perno is a district in the Naantalintie ward of the city of Turku, in Finland. It is located to the west of the city, and is mainly a high-density residential suburb. There is also a large maritime dock ( Meyer Turku) located there. The curre ...
, then part of
Raisio Raisio (; sv, Reso) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and Municipalities of Finland, municipality in south-western Finland and an important junction of major roads. The town has a population of () and is located in the region of So ...
, some from the centre of Turku. The area was joined to Turku, and on 8 April 1974 the city council approved a plan to sell of land and of water area to Wärtsilä for a new shipyard. The work was launched in a ceremony held on 16 May 1974, when president
Urho Kekkonen Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (; 3 September 1900 – 31 August 1986), often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982. He also served as Prime Minister ...
detonated the first explosive charge of the site work. The number of construction workers rose to over 1,000 people. The first part of construction was the
dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
, which was then specified to a length of and width of , and measured for two 100,000
dry weight Vehicle weight is a measurement of wheeled motor vehicles; either an actual measured weight of the vehicle under defined conditions or a gross weight rating for its weight carrying capacity. Curb or kerb weight Curb weight (U.S. English) or kerb ...
vessels, a
bridge crane An overhead crane, commonly called a bridge crane, is a type of crane found in industrial environments. An overhead crane consists of two parallel rails seated on longitudinal I-beams attached to opposite steel columns by means of brackets. ...
of 600-tonne capacity, operative height and track, two 50-tonne
level luffing crane A level-luffing crane is a crane mechanism where the hook remains at the same level while luffing: moving the jib up and down, so as to move the hook inwards and outwards relative to the base. Usually the description is only applied to those wi ...
s, a warm hall of for steelworks, paint shop, service building and an office building with dressing rooms. At this stage the headcount was 1,200; the workers were from the old yard, where the capacity was reduced respectively. Designing, administration, special ship building up to 40,000 tonnes,
diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
production and ship repairs were decided to be kept at the old yard for then. The schedule was tight – the first
keel laying Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...
was to be in 1976 and the ship was supposed to be handed over in 1977. The record-long order book of Wärtsilä gave an additional challenge to the project. Operations in the steel sheet shop were started at the end of 1975. Despite the tough endeavour, the first ship of Wärtsilä Perno Shipyard, ''Gas Rising Sun'' (NB 1229) was handed over no earlier than 1978. The yard was fully operational in 1979, but until 1982 the vessels were tugged to the old yard for outfitting.Knorring: ''Telakkajätti ja telakkakriisi.'' pp. 135–139. While moving the production to the new yard, shipbuilding methods were developed. Hulls were now constructed from large modules and an increasing proportion of welding and sheet metal work was performed indoors. Wärtsilä started a new computing centre in Perno in 1978. Ten years later the yard began the world's first computer-aided line production of modules with a system developed jointly with the Norwegian company Total Transportation Systems. A
CAD/CAM CAD/CAM refers to the integration of Computer-aided design (CAD) and Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). Both of these require powerful computers. ''CAD'' software helps designers and draftsmen; ''CAM'' "reduces manpower costs" in the manufactur ...
system was introduced in 1984. Production rationalisation affected on outfitting work in particular, which was increasingly outsourced.Grönros et al.: ''Suunnittelun ja tuotannon kehitys.'' pp. 24–38.


Shipbuilding crisis

At the end of the 1970s Wärtsilä produced mainly
gas tanker A gas carrier, gas tanker, LPG carrier, or LPG tanker is a ship designed to transport LPG, LNG, CNG, or liquefied chemical gases in bulk. Types Fully pressurized gas carrier The seaborne transport of liquefied gases began in 1934 when a maj ...
s,
passenger ship A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...
s and
cargo ships A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...
. In the early 1980s Soviet exports, which had been low in the previous years, rose again until the mid 1980s – they postponed the impact of the European shipbuilding crisis, which was caused by the
price dumping Predatory pricing is a pricing strategy, using the method of undercutting on a larger scale, where a dominant firm in an industry will deliberately reduce the prices of a product or service to loss-making levels in the short-term. The aim is th ...
of Asian shipbuilders.


Wärtsilä Marine and bankruptcy

Wärtsilä and
Valmet Valmet Oyj is a Finnish company and a developer and supplier of technologies, automation systems and services for the pulp (paper), pulp, paper and energy industry, energy industries. Valmet has over 200 years of history as an industrial oper ...
put together their shipbuilding businesses, creating
Wärtsilä Marine Wärtsilä Marine ( fi, Wärtsilä Meriteollisuus; sv, Wärtsilä Marinindustri) was a Finnish shipbuilding company. The company was created in 1987 in order to improve shipbuilding productivity by combining the Wärtsilä and Valmet yards unde ...
at the beginning of 1987. At that time Perno yard had only one non-started project on its order book, cruise ship NB 1294 to be delivered in 1988. The number of personnel was reduced heavily. The yard got more work already in January from nine projects originally addressed to Valmet yard, which was to be closed down. The order book grew in 1987 by four passenger ships and two more orders followed in 1988.Knorring: ''Wärtsilä Marinen tarina.'' pp. 140–146. The sudden growth in their order book, together with errors in price calculations and other reasons, led to the bankruptcy of Wärtsilä Marine on 23 October 1989. At the time there were seven ships on the order book of which two were at quay for outfitting, one was under construction in the dry dock, two were partly started and two ships were at designing phase. The
cruiseferry A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship and a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while oth ...
''Cinderella'' was nearly ready and handed over just six days after the bankruptcy, when the shipowner SF-Line made the last payment.


New start

On 7 November 1989, just two weeks after the bankruptcy, a new company was started by Helsinki yard manager
Martin Saarikangas Martin Saarikangas (born 24 January 1937) is a Finnish shipbuilder and vuorineuvos, best known as the co-founder of Masa-Yards (now Meyer Turku), after the bankruptcy of Wärtsilä Marine. From 2003 to 2007 he was a member of the Parliament of Fin ...
. The company name was Masa-Yards Oy and the owners were state of Finland,
Suomen Yhdyspankki Nordea Bank Abp, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a European Finance, financial services group operating in northern Europe and based in Helsinki, Finland. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The bank is the result of the suc ...
and shipowners of which ships laid unfinished at the Perno and
Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
yards. The first task of the new company was finishing the ordered craft. On 19 January 1990 Effoa's ''
Silja Serenade MS ''Silja Serenade'' is a cruiseferry owned by the Estonian shipping company Tallink, Tallink Grupp, operating under their Silja Line brand on a route connecting Helsinki to Stockholm via Mariehamn. She was built in 1990 by Masa-Yards at Perno sh ...
'' was launched; it was the largest cruiseferry built in Finland at the time. ''Kalypso'', launched in the previous summer, was handed over the same spring. ''Silja Serenade'' was handed over in November in the same day when its sister ship ''
Silja Symphony MS ''Silja Symphony'' is a cruiseferry owned by the Estonian shipping company Tallink Group,CCL were eventually built at Helsinki shipyard.Knorring: ''Masa-Yardsin tarina.'' pp. 147–152.


Kværner Masa-Yards

Both the founding shipowners and the state wanted to sell their shares of Masa-Yards as soon as the operations were restarted. In 1991 the major owner became Norwegian
Kværner Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. In 2004, it was amalgamated to the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 2008 ...
and the company was renamed Kværner Masa-Yards. Soon after the situation was stabilised, the Perno yard started to gain more orders. The most significant were a cruise ship ordered by the
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese Yusen Kaisha and four
LNG carrier An LNG carrier is a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). History The first LNG carrier ''Methane Pioneer'' () carrying , classed by Bureau Veritas, left the Calcasieu River on the Louisiana Gulf coast on 25 January ...
s ordered from
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
. In the late 1990s the yard started building
Voyager-class cruise ship The ''Voyager'' class refers to a design of Panamax, post-Panamax cruise ships owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International. The ''Voyager''-class ships were built at Kværner Masa-Yards Perno shipyard, Turku New Shipyard, Finland. There ar ...
s for
Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International (RCI), also formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line brand founded in 1968 in Norway and organised as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Flori ...
; the 1999 commissioned ''
Voyager of the Seas Voyager may refer to: Computing and communications * LG Voyager, a mobile phone model manufactured by LG Electronics * NCR Voyager, a computer platform produced by NCR Corporation * Voyager (computer worm), a computer worm affecting Oracle d ...
'' was first followed by two additional orders for sister ships ''
Explorer of the Seas ''Explorer of the Seas'' is a owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International, completed in 2000. She can accommodate over 3,000 guests, including scientists making use of a built-in atmospheric and oceanographic laboratory operated by the U ...
'' and '' Adventure of the Seas''. Later the shipowner placed orders for two more upgraded ships, '' Navigator of the Seas'' and ''
Mariner of the Seas ''Mariner of the Seas'' is one of five s of Royal Caribbean International and can accommodate 4,252 passengers. ''Mariner of the Seas'' is a second generation ''Voyager''-class vessel. The ship's godmother is American paralympic athlete Jean D ...
'', which entered in service in 2002 and 2003.


Aker Yards and STX Finland

Another Norwegian company, Aker, took over Kværner in 2001. In 2004 it was announced that the Perno and Helsinki yards operated by Kværner Masa-Yards, and
Rauma shipyard Rauma shipyard ( fi, Rauman telakka) is a shipyard in Rauma, Finland. It was previously operated by STX Finland which is owned by the South Korean STX Corporation. Rauma shipyard is specialized in large ferries, small cruise ships, multipurpose ic ...
, already owned by Aker before, were merged into one organisation. From beginning of 2005 the three yards operated under name Aker Finnyards. The company name was changed
Aker Yards Aker may refer to: Places * Aker, Norway, a geographic area in Oslo and a former municipality in Norway * Vestre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Nordre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Aker Br ...
on 7 June 2006. The Korean shipbuilding company STX became a major owner in Aker in 2008. The name Aker Yards was replaced by
STX Europe STX Europe AS, formerly Aker Yards ASA, was until 2012 a subsidiary of the South Korean STX Offshore & Shipbuilding. With headquarters in Oslo, Norway, STX Europe operated 15 shipyards in Brazil, Finland, France, Norway, Romania and Vietnam. T ...
on 3 November 2008.


Meyer Turku

The Perno yard was bought from STX by
Meyer Werft Meyer Werft is one of the major German shipyards, headquartered in Papenburg at the river Ems. Founded in 1795 and starting with small wooden vessels, today Meyer Werft is a builder of luxury passenger ships. 700 ships of different types have be ...
and the state of Finland in August 2014, and it has been operated by Meyer Turku after that. In April 2015 Meyer Werft bought the 30% formerly owned by the state of Finland and is now the sole proprietor. Under Meyer ownership the shipyard has been successful; the order book in spring of 2019 was filled to 2024 (seven ships).


Sources

* *


References


External links

{{Coord, display=title Wärtsilä Shipyards of Finland