Canadian shipyards hail ICE Pact

Credit: Seaspan

The two Canadian shipyards building heavy polar icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard, Seaspan Shipyards and Chantier Davie, have welcomed the trilateral ICE Pact announced yesterday by the governments of the U.S., Canada and Finland.

Like the three-ship U.S. Polar Security Cutter program, the two-ship Canadian heavy polar icebreaker program has been facing delays and cost overruns that were the subject of a recent Parliamentary Budget Office report (see earlier story), though neither Canadian shipyard made any mention of that in their statements —and demand for icebreakers is not limited to super heavyweight Polarvessels.

“As part of Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy, Seaspan is tasked with designing, building and delivering 21 icebreaker vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG). As of today, we have already delivered three icebreaker vessels, and a fourth will be delivered early next year,” said Seaspan. “We are currently well into the design of a heavy polar icebreaker that will provide year-round operations across the entire Canadian Arctic. Construction of that vessel will start later this year. We are also well into the design of 16 additional medium icebreaker vessels that will be built and delivered over the next 10-20 years. Together with our CCG partner, we stand ready to leverage this Canadian design and build capability to support the ambitious ICE goals announced today.”

“Through the strategic foresight of Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard, a world-class icebreaker design and build capability already exists in Canada and can be leveraged for ICE,” said Seaspan Shipyards CEO John McCarthy. “In fact, we have had strategic relationships with Finnish partners – particularly Aker Arctic and Elomatic – for several years on the design of our icebreaker vessels. We are happy to continue this collaboration on expertise and construction capacity with our ICE Pact allies as they seek to boost their Arctic naval capabilities, and project sovereign authority over their respective Arctic territories.”

“Agreements like the ‘ICE Pact’ that coalesce expertise and construction capacity will help additional allied nations secure better icebreaking vessels faster,” McCarthy added. “Seaspan Shipyards is ready to be an active member of this agreement to work with shipyards across Canada and around the world to help confront growing challenges in the Arctic.”

DAVIE HAS FINNISH YARD, TOO

Davie, the Canadian shipyard selected to build the second Canadian Coast Guard polar icebreaker, is particularly likely to benefit from the trilateral nature of the ICE Pact, following its acquisition of Finland’s Helsinki Shipyard.

“As an icebreaker specialist with advanced facilities in Canada and Finland, Davie is uniquely qualified to be a major contributor [to the ICE Pact],” the company said yesterday, . “Davie’s Finnish business, Helsinki Shipyard, has built over 50% of the global icebreaker fleet. Davie is also building the world’s largest order book of polar icebreakers for the Government of Canada in Québec.”

“Demand for these specialized, hard-to-build ships is arguably at an all-time high, with more than 80 open projects among Western countries,“

Davie noted. “Under the ICE Pact, global diplomatic collaboration will help icebreaker builders capture these opportunities.”