![Vuosaari-harbor-being-built panorama FI-EU 2007-Sep-02 by-RAM](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Vuosaari-harbor-being-built_panorama_FI-EU_2007-Sep-02_by-RAM.jpg)
Vuosaari shipyard was 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 ...
located in the district of
Vuosaari
Vuosaari ( sv, Nordsjö) is a neighbourhood in the City of Helsinki, Finland. It is located by the sea in East Helsinki and with its area of is geographically the largest district in the city. It also has two Helsinki Metro stations, Rastila a ...
in
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 ...
,
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 ...
. Built by the Finnish
state-owned company
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a Government, government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn Profit (econom ...
Valmet Oy in the early 1970s, the shipyard delivered 33 newbuildings and participated in building around 100 other vessels before it was closed in 1987 following the bankruptcy of
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 ...
. Later, the longest dry dock in Finland was used by various ship repair companies until the construction of the new
Vuosaari harbour
Vuosaari Harbour (''Vuosaaren satama'' in Finnish; ''Nordsjö hamn'' in Swedish) is a seaport facility in Helsinki, Finland, opened in November 2008. It is also the 19th tallest building in Finland. Pillu Kolehmainen is the most famous stevedorer ...
cut the connection to the sea in 2004. Despite various plans to re-use the old dry dock, now located inside the harbour perimeter, it remained without use until the basin was backfilled in 2015–2016.
History
In 1946 a number of Finnish state-owned
heavy industry
Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...
enterprises were combined to a single
conglomerate called Valtion Metallitehtaat (State Metalworks), which acquired several shipyards in Helsinki,
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''; ...
and
Uusikaupunki
Uusikaupunki (; sv, Nystad, ) is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southwest Finland region, northwest of Turku and south of Pori. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is inland wate ...
. The first ships were oceangoing
fishing trawler
A fishing trawler is a commercial fishing vessel designed to operate Trawling, fishing trawls. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively dragging or pulling a trawl through the water behind one or more trawlers. Trawls are fishing ...
s built in
Suomenlinna
Suomenlinna (; until 1918 Viapori, ), or Sveaborg (), is an inhabited sea fortress the Suomenlinna district is on eight islands of which six have been fortified; it is about 4 km southeast of the city center of Helsinki, the capital of Finla ...
for the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
as part of the
Finnish war reparations. In 1950 the company was incorporated and its name was shortened to Valmet Oy, and in the following year a new shipyard was built in
Katajanokka
Katajanokka ( sv, Skatudden) is a neighbourhood of Helsinki, Finland, with around 4000 inhabitants in 2005. The district is located adjacent to the immediate downtown area, though in the first major town plan for Helsinki from the mid-18th cent ...
in downtown Helsinki. After the war reparations had been paid in full, the future of the state-owned shipyard remained uncertain until the
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...
in 1956, which increased the worldwide demand for new ships and brought new contracts for Valmet as well. Later the company constructed a long series of
accommodation ship
A barracks ship or barracks barge or berthing barge, or in civilian use accommodation vessel or accommodation ship, is a ship or a non-self-propelled barge containing a superstructure of a type suitable for use as a temporary barracks for sai ...
s for the Soviet Union.
[Luoma-aho, Jarmo]
Valmet Oy, Helsingin telakka 1918-1987
8 August 2003.
However, Valmet was not able to compete with private companies in the newbuilding market, and in 1963 a decision was made to switch focus on repairing existing ships and maintain only limited newbuilding capability on a single shipyard.
When demand for new ships increased considerably in the mid-1960s, the shipbuilding strategy of Valmet changed considerably.
[Valkonen, M. Vuosaaren telakka-altaan kuntotutkimus ja käyttömahdollisuudet Vuosaaren sataman yhteydessä. Diplomityö. Rakennus- ja ympäristötekniikan osasto, Teknillinen Korkeakoulu, 2005.] As the size of new ships was expected to increase in the future, there was a danger that the state-owned shipbuilding company would not be able to compete in the lucrative newbuilding market. Since expanding the shipyard located in the middle of the capital city was deemed impossible, a decision was made to construct a completely new shipyard in Vuosaari.
The Vuosaari shipyard was built in 1971–1974. The new dry dock was wide and deep, but only long at first. However, during the construction it was decided to lengthen it to due to the growing demand of large crude oil tankers, making it the longest dry dock in Finland.
[The dry dock of the former Vuosaari shipyard was longer than the dry docks at ]Perno shipyard
Perno shipyard is a shipyard in Turku, southwest Finland, that specialises in building cruise ships, passenger ferries, special vessels and offshore projects. The yard area is . The yard is operated by Meyer Turku Oy. The dry dock is long, wid ...
(), Helsinki New Shipyard
Hietalahti shipyard (also known as Helsinki New Shipyard, fi, Helsingin uusi telakka) is a shipyard in Hietalahti, in downtown Helsinki, Finland. Since 2019, it has been operated by a company named Helsinki Shipyard.
History
The shipyard, f ...
(), Turku Repair Yard
sv, Åbo Reparationsvarv Ab
, native_name_lang =
, romanized_name =
, former_name =
, type =
, traded_as =
, ISIN =
, industry = ship and boat repair and maintenance
, genre =
, fate =
, predecessor = Wärtsilä Marine
, succe ...
() 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 ...
(). Blocks weighing up to 500 tons could be constructed in the production halls and lifted to the construction basin with four 150-ton cranes. When the new shipyard was opened, Valmet also moved its two floating docks of 5,000 and 12,000 tons, used for maintenance and repair docking of smaller vessels, from Katajanokka to Vuosaari. An intermediate gate was built in 1984 so that part of the shipyard could be flooded while the other part was used for docking.
Between 1974 and 1987 Vuosaari shipyard delivered 33 new ships and participated in building around 100 other vessels. These include four 153,000 DWT
crude oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...
s for
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
shipping company
Klaveness in 1977–1979, four large
barge carriers, ten
SA-15 and SA-15 Super type Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
cargo ship
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 ...
s in 1983–1987, and the first large
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 ...
,
''Birka Princess'' for
Birka Line, in 1986. The majority of the newbuildings were built for the Soviet Union. The last newbuilding, barge ''
Espa'' for
ESL Shipping, was delivered in 1987.
Vuosaari shipyard was merged with
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 ...
in 1986 to form
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 ...
of which Valmet owned 30%. After the downturn in shipbuilding in the mid-1980s, the company decided to close the Vuosaari shipyard on 13 January 1987 and move the shipbuilding to
Helsinki Shipyard
Helsinki Shipyard Oy is a Finnish shipbuilding company based at Hietalahti shipyard in Helsinki, Finland. The company was established in 2019 to continue the shipbuilding activities of Arctech Helsinki Shipyard in Finland.
History
Helsinki S ...
in
Hietalahti. In 1987–1991 various shipping companies rented the old shipyard from Wärtsilä for routine dockings. The cranes were sold in 1991, two to Germany and two to
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 ...
. Several ship repair companies operated in and around the old dry dock until 2004, when the construction of the new harbour cut the connection to the sea.
![Vuosaari shipyard 20160316](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Vuosaari_shipyard_20160316.jpg)
The old shipyard area has since been occupied by other companies.
ABB Marine used the old block assembly halls for the construction of
Azipod
Azipod is a trademark azimuth thruster pod design, a marine propulsion unit consisting of a fixed pitch propeller mounted on a steerable gondola ("pod") containing the electric motor driving the propeller, allowing ships to be more maneuverable ...
s until 2007,
[ABB laajentaa Vuosaaressa](_blank)
Tekniikka & Talous, 30 June 2005. Aker Arctic
Aker Arctic Technology Oy (often shortened to Aker Arctic) is a Finnish engineering company that operates an ice model test basin in Helsinki. In addition to ship model testing, the company offers various design, engineering and consulting serv ...
opened a new ice model test facility next to the old dry dock in 2006,
[History](_blank)
Aker Arctic. and
Paulig
Paulig is a Finnish family-owned food and drink company, founded in 1876. The company's brands are Paulig, Santa Maria, Risenta and Poco Loco. Paulig has 2,000 employees in 13 countries and its net sales in 2019 were EUR 921 million.
History
The ...
constructed a modern coffee roasting plant where the main gate of the Vuosaari shipyard once stood.
[Pauligin uusi kahvipaahtimo vihittiin käyttöön](_blank)
. Paulig, 21 January 2010. Over the years most of the old buildings, such as the design office close to the dry dock gate, have been demolished. The intermediate gate was also later scrapped and its steel plating re-used in a barge.
While several ideas for re-using the old dry dock were presented over the years, nothing significant was ever realized. In 2008, the floor and walls of the basin were strengthened with concrete and a new wall was built in front of the old steel gate in preparation of using the basin for storage of empty
shipping container
A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes. In the context of ...
s, but it was never used for this purpose.
[Vuosaaren vanha telakka-allas jatkaa uudessa tehtävässä](_blank)
Kunnallis-Suomi, 5/2009. In late 2015, the Port of Helsinki began backfilling the dry dock in order to create an above-ground storage area for containers. The work was completed in 2016 and the area has now been paved over.
Vuosaaren sataman ilme muuttuu
Port of Helsinki, 18 April 2016.
Ships built in Vuosaari
Between 1974 and 1987 the following vessels were delivered from the Vuosaari shipyard with the exception of one crude oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...
that received a yard number but was later cancelled. , less than half of the newbuildings built at Vuosaari remain in service.
Notes
References
{{coord, 60.21556, 25.17889, display=title
Shipyards of Finland
Valmet
Wärtsilä
Vuosaari