SWEDEN on Friday signed a deal with South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries for a new icebreaker to be delivered in 2029, the Swedish Maritime Administration said.
The Scandinavian country currently has six icebreakers, with the largest ones built in the 1970s and 1980s and now nearing the end of their lifespans.
“Nine out of 10 goods exported from and imported to Sweden are transported by sea. Sweden’s basic industries depend on shipping working year-round,” the director general of the Maritime Administration, Erik Eklund, said in a statement.
The vessel will be larger than the country’s current icebreakers, capable of breaking a channel up to 32 metres wide compared to today’s 24 metres, the agency said.
At the same time, energy consumption will be reduced by 40 per cent, it said.
AFP
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