News Analysis: U.S.' plan to build more icebreakers opens vistas for Finland's knowhow

U. S. media reported on Tuesday about President Barack Obama's intention to accelerate U. S. plans to build an icebreaker as a replacement of one to be deactivated and to start a programme to build several new icebreakers.

Helsinki is the birthplace of modern ice breaking technologies. About half of the current icebreakers in service in the world have been built in this Finnish capital.

The development in the U. S. is watched with interest particularly in the company Aker Arctic Technologies, a Helsinki-based Arctic maritime expertise company that has provided knowhow in icebreaking for all customers, both the East and the West. So far the customers have been predominantly from the East.

"U. S. legislation requires ships of this kind to be built by American yards, but opportunities exist in design and technological deliveries," Arto Uusikallio, Sales Director of the Aker Arctic Technologies, told Xinhua.

In North America, Aker Artic Technologies has been keenly involved in the sole new icebreaker project in Canada, but the ship has not been built yet, Uusikallio noted.

Finnish expertise is ready for a belated boom in the West, but Uusikallio said that U. S. icebreaker projects have often been subject to political disagreements and prolonged process and it was too early to comment on Obama's new initiative.

Finland has been lobbying for its ice breaker technology in the U. S. since 1970s. The then Finnish President Urho Kekkonen was persistent about Finnish icebreakers to be given a chance in talks with the then U. S. President Gerald Ford in 1976, but with meager results.

Analysts believe that icebreakers are a must to maintain presence in the Arctic. Very recently the West or the U. S. in particular, has awakened to the fact that for the time being the balance of power in the Arctic tilts towards Russia.

In the U. S. media, the capability gap in the Artic now has been compared to the "missile gap", a Cold War era concept. Observers have noted that Russia has over 40 icebreakers. Furthermore, Russia is reportedly planning to build 11 more.

Many of the ships in the Russian icebreaker fleet have been built in Finland at the Hietalahti Wharf since 1960s. The wharf went into fully Russian ownership as the South Korean STX gave up its share last year, but the Aker Arctic Technologies was separated from the yard in 2005 and is today owned by the Finnish governmental Industrial Investment Company.

Apart from strategic considerations, the modest U. S. capability of only two icebreakers has also been taken up by environmentalists as a risk in the event of oil spills.

Locally Alaskans have been concerned about the possibility of oil drilling leaks as Shell has been given permission by the U. S. to start underwater drilling on the Northern coast of Alaska.

Finnish knowhow has been deployed as icebreaker Fennica sailed all the way from Finland to support the Shell project.

Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini announced in Achorage, Alaska after the latest Arctic Council Conference there that Finland will participate in an arctic sea rescue maneuver with the U. S. in Alaskan waters this October. This may also help in sales of technology, local Finnish media noted.

The opening of Arctic naval routes for commercial use will also need cargo ships capable of following icebreakers or going alone in easier ice. Aker Arctic has designed such ships including one being built by the Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI). Ice capabilities will increasingly be a competitive edge factor in shipping. Endit