Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the start of operations at the Turku shipyard in Perno. The new shipyard was built to meet the needs of a rapidly growing shipbuilding industry and to enable the construction of increasingly large vessels. Launched in 1974, the construction project was one of the most significant industrial investments in Finland at the time, and the President of the Republic, Urho Kekkonen, inaugurated the new shipyard – then owned by Wärtsilä Oy – on September 22, 1976.

"We are marking this 50th anniversary by continuing our work and looking resolutely toward the future," says Casimir Lindholm, CEO of Meyer Turku Oy. "The Turku shipyard’s strength has always been its ability to reinvent itself. Our ongoing €200 million investment program strengthens our competitiveness, boosts productivity, and lays the foundation for success in the decades to come. At the same time, we are investing in a safer, smoother, and more pleasant working environment for everyone at the shipyard. We want to ensure that the world’s most advanced ships continue to be built in Turku in the future."

The shipyard’s facilities were originally designed for tanker construction; at the time, two ships could fit side-by-side in the 80-meter-wide building dock. Today, a single vessel from the state-of-the-art Icon-class fills the 365-meter-long building dock almost from end to end. Over the course of five decades, the Turku shipyard has grown into a driving force of the Finnish maritime industry and one of the world’s leading cruise shipbuilders. More than 2,300 Meyer Turku employees and an extensive partner network make the shipyard a significant employer and export industry player, with an impact extending across Finland and into international markets.