After around 50 years, Sweden is getting a new icebreaker. The tender has been completed and the order has been placed. A shipyard in the Far East has been chosen.
As confirmed by the Swedish Maritime Administration, the South Korean shipyard HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has been chosen. It is to build the icebreaker and deliver it in 2029. The ship will be larger than the current icebreakers and will be able to break a channel up to 32 meters wide. Previously, the maximum was 24 meters.
In the recent past, several countries have significantly stepped up their efforts to build icebreakers: Germany is getting a new “Polarstern”, which is being built at TKMS, the USA has awarded contracts – in its own country – and Finland has signed off on a new concept .
Sweden’s current large icebreakers were built in the 1970s and 1980s and are reaching the end of their technical service life. At the same time, the need for icebreaking capacity is increasing, not least due to more severe winters and harsher ice conditions at sea. Without this capacity, several ports in northern Sweden are at risk of being closed for up to 130 days a year.
“Nine out of ten goods exported and imported to Sweden are transported by sea. The Swedish raw materials industry is dependent on year-round maritime transport. Our icebreakers have served Sweden well for decades, but now need to be gradually replaced. This is an important step to ensure operational readiness and keep the ports open all year round,” said Erik Eklund, Director General of the Swedish Maritime Administration.
The new, as yet unnamed icebreaker is based on a joint Swedish-Finnish project developed in collaboration with the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and the design office Railotech. The design was validated through extensive tests in ice basins and wind tunnels. The design is expected to reduce energy consumption by 40%.
A total of four shipyards applied for the construction, as confirmed by the authority. It was not disclosed which shipyards were involved. “The bids were evaluated on the basis of predetermined criteria. Price, guarantee and delivery time formed the basis of the assessment,” it said.
Further orders could follow: “The renewal of the icebreaker fleet is part of a long-term project; planning for further icebreakers is already underway,” the authority writes.
Icebreaker also a topic in the HANSA podcast
The increasing requirements for ships in icy waters were recently the focus of the HANSA podcast (in German). Nils Reimer, Head of “Arctic Technology” at the Hamburg Shipbuilding Research Institute (HSVA), talks in an episode about new research and special ships for the Arctic and Antarctic – including projects such as the “Polarstern”.
Reimer describes the increasing conflict of objectives between environmental protection and safety, changing ice and climate conditions and the consequences for hull shape, propellers, rudders, propulsion concepts and alternative fuels. His conclusion: ships for ice regions today have to be designed for a much broader range of applications than just a few years ago.
