Helsinki Shipyard in Finland which has just changed owners, has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with an undisclosed customer to build two expedition cruise ships, the Hufvudstadsbladet daily reports.
The vessels will have capacity of 150 to 160 passengers each, the report said.
The shipyard is now owned by Algador Holdings, a Cyprus based company owned by Vladimir Kasjanenko, who is a Russian citizen and Rishat Bagautdinov who is a citizen of Belgium.
Helsinki Shipyard was previously known as Arctech and it was fully owed by United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), a Russian state owned company. Sanctions imposed by the United States against Russia hampered its business and USC decided to sell Arctech, which has currently no vessels in its orderbook.
The shipbuilder’s history spans about 150 years and it has changed hands several times over the decades. Before USC, it was owned by STX Offshore & Shipbuilding through its STX Europe unit, which was preceded by Aker Yards, Kvaerner Masa-Yards and Wartsila Marine Industries.
It has played a prominent role in the development of the modern cruise industry as it built e.g. the first three ships of Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd (RCCL) and the Royal Princess of 1984, which revolutionised the layout of cruise ships. No cruise ships were built at the yard during the ownership of USC and Aker Yards used it mainly to build large ferries.
elsinki Shipyard leases the land on which its facilities are located from the municipal government. “One of my first tasks is to try to extend the lease with the City of Helsinki. The present contract will expire in 2035 and we want to extend it to 2045,” Managing Director Carl-Gustaf Rotkirch was quoted by Hufvudstadsbladet as saying.
