Finncarriers

Finnlines Plc (, ) is a shipping operator of ro-ro and passenger services in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the Celtic Sea. It is a subsidiary of the Grimaldi Group. Finnlines’ sea transports are concentrated in the Baltic and the North Sea. Finnlines’ passenger-freight vessels offer services from Finland to Germany and via Åland to Sweden as well as from Sweden to Germany. The Company has subsidiaries in Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Poland. In addition to sea transportation, the Company provides port services in Finland in Helsinki and Turku.

Finnlines’ roll-on/roll-off services cover the Finnish ports of Hanko, Helsinki, Kotka, Turku and Uusikaupunki, offering connections with Swedish, Polish, German, Danish, British, Dutch, Belgian, Irish, and Spanish ports.

Three Star-class ropax vessels (see ) operate between Helsinki and Travemünde. For passengers it is the only direct connection by sea between Finland and Continental Europe.

The other ropax services consist of the route between Malmö, Sweden, and Travemünde, Germany and between Naantali and the Åland Islands, Finland, and Kapellskär, Sweden.

History

1947–1977

Finnlines was founded in 1947 as a subsidiary of Merivienti Oy, founded earlier the same year by Enso-Gutzeit and Kansaneläkelaitos, to operate Merivienti's liner service from Finland to the United States.

Merivienti Oy () was founded on 18 April 1947 by the Finnish forest industry giant Enso-Gutzeit and Kansaneläkelaitos (Finnish Social Insurance)—both completely or partially state-owned companies—to ensure transportation of forest industry products from Finland to Western Bloc countries. According to the 1947 Paries Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, Finland had to pay US$300 million worth of war reparations to the Soviet Union, mostly in industrial goods. With only 30% of the Finnish merchant fleet having survived the war, and 2/3 of the surviving ships being used by the Allied forces or under forced charter to the Soviet Union, new tonnage was desperately needed.

In May and June 1947, Merivienti acquired three second-hand steamers for traffic into Europe. During the same year, Merivienti decided to start liner traffic from Finland to the east coast of the United States. With this in mind, Merivienti acquired three larger second-hand steamships, named , and . To operate these ships, a new company Oy Finnlines Ltd, was founded in November 1947. Finnlines was a 100% subsidiary of Merivienti and owned no ships of its own—instead the Merivienti ships were operated by and marketed as Finnlines. In subsequent years, vessels owned by other companies, such as Enso-Gutzeit (for whom they managed ), Neste, Outokumpu, Yhtyneet Paperitehtaat, Amer-Tupakka and Thomesto. Finnlines' traffic into the United States begun in 1948.Finnlines' 55 Years
, retrieved 4 May 2007 The used ships were soon found to be too small and during the 1950s seven new freighters were delivered to various owners to be operated by Finnlines. At this time the company started using names with the "Finn" prefix that has become characteristic of their fleet.The Development of Finnlines' Baltic Fleet
, retrieved 4 May 2007 A line to the United Kingdom was opened in 1955.

The company first begun carrying passengers in 1962, when the car ferry MS ''Hansa Express'' opened a new service linking Hanko, Finland to Travemünde, Germany via Visby in Sweden. 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. MS ''Finnhansa'' was the larger of the two sister ships, surpassing MS ''Finnpartner'' by ten centimeters; 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. In the late 60s Finnlines developed the ''Finnflow'' cargo-handling system, which resulted in the building of the company's first roll-on/roll-off freighters MS ''Finncarrier'', MS ''Hans Gutzeit'' and MS ''Finnfellow''.

In 1973, Finnlines purchased MS ''Stena Atlantica'' from Stena Line and renamed her MS ''Finnpartner'', for service to Germany alongside the ''Finnhansa''. During the winter season the second ''Finnpartner'' was sent cruising to the Mediterranean.M/S Saga (1966)
at ''Fakta om Fartyg'' , retrieved 4 May 2007 In the same year Finnlines also placed an order at the Wärtsilä Helsinki shipyard for a new gas turbine-powered ferry for the Finland-Germany service that was to be the largest, longest, and fastest in the world.finnjetweb.com – Finnjet chronicle
retrieved 4 May 2007 Before the new ferry was delivered several changes occurred to Finnlines: in 1975 Finnlines and their rival Finland Steamship Company (FÃ…A, which later became Effoa) began collaborating in freight and passenger traffic. ''Finncarriers'' was formed as a joint freight operator, while the Finland Steamship Company's Finland-Germany passenger services were merged into Finnlines' services, bringing MS ''Finlandia'' to Finnlines' fleet.M/S Finlandia (1967)
at ''Fakta om Fartyg'' , retrieved 4 May 2007 This meant the second Finnpartner was chartered to Olau Line. With the ''Finlandia'' and ''Finnhansa'', Finnlines maintained a year-round service to Germany, while MS ''Bore Star'' was chartered from Bore Line for cruising for the winter seasons of 1975–76 and 76–77 (she was marketed under the name ''Finnpartner'').

1977–1987

The new, large, fast GTS ''Finnjet'' was delivered to Finnlines in May 1977, 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. After delivery of the ''Finnjet'', the ''Finlandia'' was rebuilt into the cruise ship MS ''Finnstar'', becoming Finnlines' first (and to date last) genuine cruise ship. The ''Finnstar''s service was cut short by the Finnish maritime worker's strike of 1980, as result of which she ceased service and was laid up in Barcelona. In May 1981 she was sold to the Loke Shipping Co. In October of the same year, the ''Finnjet'' was rebuilt with additional diesel engines, allowing for more economic operations during the off-season.

In 1982, the first of the new jumbo-roll-on/roll-off ships was built for the Finland-United Kingdom run. Four sister ships were built over the next decade. 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 thus became a subsidiary of Effoa. Several mergers followed during the 1980s when Effoa merged various other companies it completely or partially owned into Finncarriers. 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. 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.

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. Around the same time Finnlines started collaboration with the German shipping company Poseidon Schiffahrt 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.

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. As a result, the company name "Poseidon" disappeared from the sides of Finland-Germany ships and Poseidon became Finnlines Deutschland. 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. In 1999 Finnlines took delivery of two new ro-pax vessels, MS ''Finnclipper'' and MS ''Finneagle'', both with a passenger capacity of over 400. 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.

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. After numerous delays, the first vessel, MS ''Finnstar'' was delivered in August 2006 for the Helsinki–Travemünde service, MS ''Finnmaid'' followed later in the same year, while MS ''Finnlady'', MS ''Europalink'' and MS ''Nordlink'' were delivered in February, March and July 2007, respectively.Finnlines interim report 1 January – 30 June 2007
retrieved 20 August 2007 Coinciding with the delivery of MS ''Nordlink'' the old MS ''Malmö Link'' was sold. In August 2007 it was reported that Finnlines has ordered six new ice classed ro-ro vessels from the Jinling Shipyard in China, with planned delivery dates in 2010 for the first two vessels and 2011 for the remaining four. 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. In October 2015, Grimaldi completed its acquisition of the entirety of Finnlines.

In 2018, Finnlines ordered three new ro-ro ships from the Nanjing Jinling shipyard in China. Construction on the first ship in the class began in June 2020, with deliveries expected in 2021 and 2022. In January 2020, two new ro-pax vessels, named the Superstar class and to be Finnlines' largest ships upon their entry into service in 2023, were ordered from the China Merchants Jinling Shipyard.

Services

Finnlines' roro cargo ships serve Finland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. Finnlines also maintains freight/passenger services on the routes Helsinki–Travemünde, Naantali–Kapellskär, Malmö–Travemünde and Malmö–Świnoujście.

Freight/passenger services

Freight services

Rosslare-Zeebrugge

Finnlines makes runs between Rosslare and Zeebrugge with six sailings per week (3 round trips).

Helsinki–Gdynia

Finnlines makes runs between Helsinki and Gdynia with three/four departures per week.

Helsinki–Aarhus

Finnlines makes runs between Helsinki and Aarhus with two departures per week.

Future Fleet

On 8 April 2025, Finnlines announced that they have ordered 3 new vessels for the Finland to Germany route. They will be based on the 'Superstar-class' ferries that operate between Finland and Sweden, however will be adapted for the longer route for example by having additional cabins and restaurants suited to different passenger preferences. This order will be delivered between 2028 and 2030 by China Merchants Jinling Shipyard (Weihai), as part of bigger 9 vessel order for the Grimaldi fleet. The other 6 are all to operate in Mediterranean Sea, 4 are for Grimaldi Lines and 2 are for Minoan Lines. At 240m long, these vessels will be capable of running on Methanol and carry 5,100 lane metres of freight and 1,100 passengers in 320 cabins.

Former Fleet

References

External links

Company website

Finnlink company website

Nordö Link company website

Nordic Ferry Center


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{{Authority control

Ferry companies of Finland
Shipping companies of Finland
Companies based in Helsinki
Transport companies established in 1947
Grimaldi Group
1947 establishments in Finland
Companies formerly listed on Nasdaq Helsinki