Normally, the maintenance of the Swedish Maritime Administration's six state-owned icebreakers is fully financed with money from fairway fees.
The new EU funds are therefore a welcome addition to keep Sweden's icebreakers going – which, according to Franzén, are in great need of maintenance.
The icebreakers we have are old and every season is a concern. The addition from the EU means that we can make extra efforts on maintenance, says Franzén.
New systems
These efforts include, among other things, new navigation systems, new emergency generators and a new fire safety system on board.
Some of the money will also go to the continued conversion of Idun – the latest addition to the fleet, which was purchased last year – which will be upgraded with ice radar and other digital systems.
Finland and Estonia are also included in the EU initiative and will each build a new, smaller icebreaker.
"A first step"
However, some upgraded systems on the Swedish state-owned icebreakers will not be available until next season.
It's not until next year that we can implement these changes, says Franzén.
At the same time, he emphasizes that the Swedish icebreaker fleet will need to be replaced entirely in the long run. The maintenance of the existing vessels, built in the 1970s and 80s, is only being carried out to maintain operations while waiting for new ones.
Currently, a procurement is underway for the construction of a new icebreaker, so it's a first step towards a new fleet. But for a new fleet, state funds are needed, we don't have the financing opportunities ourselves.
The Swedish Maritime Administration has the six state-owned icebreakers Ale, Atle, Frej, Oden, Ymer, and Idun. If needed, external resources, such as tugboats, are hired.
On average, 3,500 vessels traffic Sweden under icebreaker leadership each year.
To and from the ports in the Bothnian Bay, nearly ten million tons of goods are transported per winter, which corresponds to approximately one million trucks.
Nine out of ten goods that come to Sweden go through the sea at some point, and without icebreaking, the ports in northern Sweden would have risked being closed for up to 130 days a year.
Sweden and Finland have had close cooperation on icebreaking for several years. This can mean that sometimes it is a Finnish icebreaker that assists traffic to a Swedish port and vice versa.
Source: Swedish Maritime Administration
