Davie's Helsinki Shipyard to Build Finland's New Icebreaker Aino

is being built in Finland. Helsinki Shipyard CEO Kim Salmi called the contract a natural continuation of the yard's icebreaker-building history, noting the yard has produced Finnish icebreakers for more than a century. The award strengthens Davie's position as one of the world's busiest icebreaker builders. Davie acquired Helsinki Shipyard in 2023 and is also using it to support North American programs, including Canada's C$3.25 billion Polar Max heavy icebreaker and a $3.5 billion U.S. Coast Guard contract for five Arctic Security Cutters, two of which will be built in Helsinki. Aino is a B+ class vessel designed to open a 25-meter channel with 10.5 megawatts of propulsion, developed by Railotech, formerly Aker Arctic, to handle fragmented and heavy brash ice under changing Baltic conditions. The project is backed by €42 million from the European Union's Connecting Europe Facility, the largest such grant awarded to Finland, within an overall Finnish budget of about €170 million. Steel production and block fabrication will be handled by Davie affiliate Sata Shipbuilding in Pori, part of a €200 million investment program to expand Finnish shipbuilding capacity through the decade's end.