Discover

'Finnlines Oy' ''(Finnlines Ltd)'' is a Finnish shipping company that operates freight throughout Northern Europe as well as passenger services in the Baltic Sea. In the past, Finnlines has operated ships under the brands 'Finncarriers', 'Finnflow Systems', 'Finnjet Lines', and 'FG Shipping Oy Ab'. As of 2006, Grimaldi Group is the largest owner of Finnlines with 50.7% of all shares^[1].
Finnlines also owns the ''Polfin Line'', the ''Trans-Russia Express'' and the port operator ''Finnsteve''.

Contents

History

1947-1977

1977-1987

1987-2002

2002-Present

Services

Helsinki—Travemünde

Naantali—Kapellskär

Malmö—Travemünde

References

External links

History

1947-1977

Finnlines was founded after World War II in 1947 as a daughter company of Merivienti Oy to manage and operate the latter's fleet. In 1948 Finnlines began trafficking from Finland to the United States with three used steamers, including the S/S ''Tornator''.^[2] The ''Tornator'' was commemorated in the song ''Albatrossi'' by the Finnish songwriter Juha "Watt" Vainio. The used ships were soon found to be too small and during the 1950s seven new freighters were delivered to Finnlines. At this time the company started using names with the "Finn" prefix that has become characteristic of their fleet.^[3] A line to the United Kingdom was opened in 1955.² From the start the Finnish forest industry giant Enso-Gutzeit was a major player in Finnlines, and Finnlines soon became a daughter company of Enso-Gutzeit.
The company first begun carrying passengers in 1962, when the car ferry M/S ''Hansa Express'' opened a new service linking Hanko, Finland to Travemünde, Germany via Visby in Sweden.² The ship was found to be too small from the start, and Hanko a poor choice for the Finnish terminus of the line. The route was altered to Helsinki-Kalmar-Travemünde in 1963, and two large new ferries were delivered for the route in 1966.³ M/S ''Finnhansa'' was the larger of the two sister ships, surpassing M/S ''Finnpartner'' by ten centimeters;^[4] it was the largest ferry in the Baltic Sea at the time. Having two ferries year-round proved to be unprofitable and the Finnpartner was sold in 1969.^[5] In the late 60s Finnlines developed the ''Finnflow'' cargo-handling system, which resulted in the building of the company's first RORO freighters M/S ''Finncarrier'', M/S ''Hans Gutzeit'' and M/S ''Finnfellow''.³
In 1973 Finnlines purchased M/S ''Stena Atlantica'' from Stena Line and renamed her M/S ''Finnpartner'' (2), for service to Germany alongside the Finnhansa. During the winter season the second Finnpartner was sent cruising to the Mediterranean.^[6] In the same year Finnlines also placed an order at the Wärtsilä Helsinki shipyard for a new gas turbine-powered ferry that was to be the largest, longest, and fastest in the world.^[7] Before the new ferry was delivered several changes occurred to Finnlines: in 1975 Finnlines and their rival Finland Steamship Company (FÅA, which later became Effoa) began collaborating in freight and passenger traffic.² ''Finncarriers'' was formed as a joint freight operator, while the Finland Steamship Company's Finland-Germany passenger services were merged into Finnlines' services, bringing M/S ''Finlandia'' to Finnlines' fleet.^[8] This meant the second Finnpartner was chartered to Olau Line.⁶ With the Finlandia and Finnhansa, Finnlines maintained a year-round service to Germany, while M/S ''Bore Star'' was chartered from Bore Line for cruising for the winter seasons of 1975-76 and 76-77.^[9]

1977-1987

The new, large, fast GTS ''Finnjet'' was delivered to Finnlines in May 1977,⁷ replacing both of the old ferries on the route. With her 31-knot top speed the Finnjet was able to cross the Baltic in a mere 22 hours, and her accommodations were superior to those of any ferry of the day. Unfortunately she had also been designed before the oil crisis, meaning her operational costs were much higher than originally planned.³ After delivery of the Finnjet, the Finlandia was rebuilt into the cruiseship M/S ''Finnstar'', becoming Finnlines' first (and to date last) ship making cruises around the year (although she spent a part of each year chartered to Hapag-Lloyd). The first service of Finnstar was cut short by the Finnish maritime worker's strike of 1980 and as a result of which the ship was laid up in Barcelona. In May 1981 she was sold to the Loke Shipping Co.⁸ In October of the same year, a retrofit to the Finnjet was completed with additional diesel engines, allowing for more economic operations during the off-season.³
In 1982 the first of the new "jumbo-RORO" ships was built for the Finland-United Kingdom run. Four sister ships were built over the next decade.³ Also in 1982, Enso-Gutzeit decided to give up its shipping activities and as a result 75% of Finnlines was sold to other shipping companies. All Enso-Gutzeit ships sailing for Finncarriers were sold to Effoa or Neste Oy and all of Enso-Gutzeit's shares of Finncarriers were sold to Effoa. Finncarriers became a subsidiary of Effoa.² Several mergers followed during the 1980s when Effoa merged various other companies it completely or partially owned into Finncarriers.³ In 1986 Enso-Gutzeit finally bowed out of shipping activities completely when they sold their remaining share of GTS Finnjet (25%) to Effoa, who transferred the ship into the fleet of their other subsidiary Silja Line.⁷ In the same year a new company, ''Finnlink'', was founded to operate freight between Finland and Sweden. The company's owners were mainly the same as the owners of Finnlines, and Finnlines itself owned 15% of Finnlink.²

1987-2002

A full turn-around in Effoa's operations took place in 1989 when the company decided to separate their freight-carrying operations from their passenger operations. In place of dividends, shares of Finncarriers were given to stock owners, and after several mergers, diffusions, and name-changes, a new ''Finnlines Group'' was born in 1990. In the following years Finnlines acquired Bore Line, the operations of which were incorporated into Finnlines in 1992.² Around the same time Finnlines started collaboration with the German shipping company Poseidon Schiffahrt AG on Helsinki-Travemünde traffic, which was marketed under the name ''Finncarriers-Poseidon.'' During 1994 and 1995 four new combi-roro ships (known as the Hansa class), capable of carrying 114 passengers alongside their freight capacity, were delivered for Finncarriers-Poseidon traffic.³
In 1997 Finnlines made a deal with the German Stinnes AG, essentially swapping the shared Finnlines ownership of the German company BLT with the full ownership of Poseidon Schiffahrt AG. As a result the company name "Poseidon" disappeared from the sides of Finland-Germany ships and Poseidon became Finnlines Deutschland AG. With Poseidon, the trainferry operator Railship and 40% of Team Lines also passed into Finnlines' ownership. In the same year Finnlines also became the sole owner of Finnlink.² In 1999 Finnlines took delivery of two new ro-pax vessels, M/S ''Finnclipper'' and M/S ''Finneagle'', both with a passenger capacity of over 400.³ In 2001 Finncarriers was merged into the parent company. In the same year Finnlines purchased the rest of Team Lines, and in 2002 the Swedish Nordö-Link (trafficking between Malmö and Travemünde) also became a Finnlines subsidiary.²

2002-Present

In 2004 Finnlines decided to further simplify the myriad of names under which it operated ships, merging Finnlink and Nordö-Link into the parent company. Finnlines also ordered five new large ro-pax ferries from the Italian shipyard Fincantieri.³ After numerous delays, the first vessel, M/S ''Finnstar'' was delivered in August 2006 for the Helsinki-Travemünde service, M/S ''Finnmaid'' followed later in the same year, while M/S ''Finnlady'', M/S ''Europalink'' and M/S ''Nordlink'' were delivered in February, March and July 2007, respectively.^[10][11] Coinciding with the delivery of M/S ''Nordlink'' the old M/S ''Malmö Link'' was sold.¹¹ In January 2007 the Italian Grimaldi Group became the largest owner of Finnlines and expressed interest in purchasing the entire company. However, a public tender offer made to the other owners in November 2006 resulted in Grimaldi gaining only 85,029 stocks, or 0.18% of the total.¹¹ In August 2007 it was reported that Finnlines has ordered six new ice classed roro vessels from the Jinling Shipyard in China, with planned delivery dates in 2010 for the first two vessels and 2011 for the remaining four.^[12][13]

Services

Finnlines' RORO cargo ships serve Finland, Russia, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Spain. Finnlines also maintains freight/passenger services on the routes Helsinki-Travemünde, Naantali-Kapellskär (Finnlink), and Malmö-Travemünde (Nordö Link).

Helsinki—Travemünde

Currently Finnlines traffics between Helsinki and Travemünde on five ropax ferries.

★ M/S ''Finnhansa''

★ M/S ''Transeuropa''

★ M/S ''Finnstar''

★ M/S ''Finnmaid''

★ M/S ''Finnlady''

Naantali—Kapellskär

Marketed as Finnlink, Finnlines offers freight and passenger service between Naantali (Finland) and Kapellskär (Sweden) with four ropax ferries.

★ M/S ''Finnfellow''

★ M/S ''Finneagle''

★ M/S ''Finnclipper''

★ M/S ''Finnsailor''

Malmö—Travemünde

The Nordö Link service is currently operated by four ropax vessels. M/S ''Finnpartner'' is currently being rebuilt for this service and should enter the service in September 2007. When she enters service, M/S ''Lübeck Link'' will be delivered to new owners.¹¹

★ M/S ''Europalink''

★ M/S ''Finntrader''

★ M/S ''Lübeck Link''

★ M/S ''Nordlink''

References

1. YLE News, retrieved on February 20, 2007
2. Finnlines' 55 Years, retrieved 4 May 2007
3. The Development of Finnlines' Baltic Fleet, retrieved 4 May 2007
4. FCBS Forum, retrieved 4 May 2007
5. M/S Finnpatner (1966) at Fakta om Fartyg, retrieved 4 May 2007
6. M/S Saga (1966) at Fakta om Fartyg, retrieved 4 May 2007
7. finnjetweb.com - Finnjet chronicle, retrieved 4 May 2007
8. M/S Finlandia (1967) at Fakta om Fartyg, retrieved 4 May 2007
9. M/S Bore Star at Fakta om Fartyg, retrieved 4 May 2007
10. FCBS Forum - Finnlines builds new ropaxes, retrieved 4 May 2007
11. Finnlines interim report 1 January - 30 June 2007, retrieved 20. 8. 2007
12. Finnlines press release: Finnlines investing in new roro vessels, retrieved 24. 8. 2007
13. Optima Shipbrokers: Optima Weekly volume 171, week 33, retrieved 20. 8. 2007

External links

★ Company website

★ Finnlink company website

★ Nordö Link company website

★ Nordic Ferry Center

★ Finnlines at Simplon Postcards

★ Finnlines at Fakta om Fartyg

★ Finncarriers at Fakta om Fartyg