Helsinki Shipyard Cuts Steel for Canada's Next Polar Icebreaker

 

Chantier Davie's Helsinki Shipyard has cut steel for the Canadian Coast Guard's next polar icebreaker, the future CCGS?Imnaryuaq. It is the second of the two different heavy icebreakers that the Canadian government has ordered under the National Shipbuilding Strategy.

Heavy icebreakers are unique and challenging vessels, requiring extra-thick hulls, special steel and heavy internal framing to brace the ship against ice pressure. Most icebreakers are built in Finland, and few other nations maintain an industrial base for icebreaker construction. To compete for Canada's business, Chantier Davie bought Helsinki Shipyard from its previous Russian owners, acquiring an experienced Finnish workforce along with tooling and yard capacity. It may not be located in Canada, but Helsinki can build the hull right away, and Chantier Davie can complete fitting-out at its yard in Quebec. 

"With construction now underway on the Polar Max icebreaker, the project will progress while developing the skills and expertise of Canadian workers," said Canadian secretary of state for defense procurement Stephen Fuhr. "This international collaboration provides our workers with the opportunity to learn best practices and advanced methods that will strengthen Canada’s shipbuilding industry for years to come."

The Helsinki Shipyard / Davie hull is scheduled for delivery in 2030. The other polar-class hull on order under the NSS, Seaspan's polar icebreaker, has been delayed to make room for other government shipbuilding priorities. Canada's government began initial design work on the project in 2012, and Seaspan cut first steel earlier this year. It is scheduled to deliver in 2032, two years after Davie's Finnish/Canadian hull. 

Canada's heavy icebreaker procurement program is an expensive venture. By comparison, the latest independent estimate for the U.S. Coast Guard's heavy icebreaker program puts the all-in unit cost at about US$1.7 billion per hull, about 175 percent over the original contract price agreed by Halter Marine. The Canadian orders cost far more: not including future overruns, Chantier Davie's one-ship program cost US$2.3 billion, and Seaspan's one-ship program cost a combined US$3 billion. Canada's parliamentary budget office estimates that the all-in procurement cost will be just over US$6 billion for the two hulls.