Turku (Finland)

Turku is a major Baltic seaport and city located on Finland's southwest coast, with population around 190,000 (ranking it the country's 6th largest). Port Turku (Turku Harbour/locode FITKU) handles the shipping traffic between Turku and Stockholm Sweden and Finland's Aland Islands (via Mariehamn). Very close to Turku (14 km / 9 mi to the west) is Finland's 3rd-largest cargo port and one of the country's principal ferry ports - Naantali.

Turku is most famous for the Meyer Turku shipbuilding yard, where many of the newest (and all the world's largest) cruise liners were built. Besides cruise ships, Meyer Turku also constructs passenger cruiseferries, which as vessel type are combined Ro-Pax vessel (car ferry and cruise ship). Other types of ships built here are special and offshore supply vessels.

The city's economy is centered on Port Turku and also on various service-oriented industries. The city is a popular high-tech center. Turku Science Park complex in Kupittaa hosts over 300 companies, many of which specialize in information technologies and biotechnologies.

Due to seaports location, the harbor offers the most efficient route to serve the Baltic Sea. Turku Harbour is among the major shipment points in the country. It handles more than 4 million tonnes of cargo and corresponding 4 million passengers annually.

The city's cultural venues include several art galleries, theatres and cinemas, as well as a philharmonic orchestra. The cultural center organizes several regular events, most notably the annual Medieval Market held in July. Turku is Finland's official Christmas city, and 'Christmas Peace' is declared on every December 24 from Brinkkala Hall balcony. The rock festival Ruisrock and Turku Music Festival are among the oldest in Scandinavia. Turku also hosts Down by the Laituri, another rock festival, and one of the largest Northern European electronic music festivals, UMF ("New Music Festival", Uuden Musiikin Festivaali).

In 2023 starts a major port development project that includes the building of a new Ferry Terminal (in the city's Linnanniemi district/Hameenlinna) to replace the current facilities run by TALLINK-SILJA LINE and VIKING LINE. The new Ferry Terminal Turku (sized 12000 m2 / 129,200 ft2) will have an additional quay (serving cruise ships) and is scheduled for completion and inauguration in December 2025.

In 2022, Port Turku started a multimillion development project co-funded by CEF (Connecting Europe Facility/a EU-European Union fund). The project includes the renewal of the Port's infrastructure, quays/docks, car parkings, digitalization, as well as building a new passenger terminal (scheduled for completion/inauguration in February 2026).

Meyer Turku shipyard Perno

The shipbuilding company Meyer Werft GmbH has its headquarters in Papenburg Germany. In Papenburg are also the company's main/largest shipbuilding facilities, including 3 dry-docks - the world's largest roofed drydocks ever constructed. Meyer Werft (1795-founded) is currently among the world's largest shipbuilders of passenger vessels.

Turku shipyard's facility is named "Perno Shipyard". The shipyard covers a total area of 1,44 km2 (0,56 mi2). The facility features a large dry-dock (length 365 m / 1198 ft) and a large bridge crane (lifting capacity 600 tons, operative height 70 m, track 150 m).

Mayer Turku Oy works with 1000+ suppliers from various countries.

• Vessels' steel blocks (hull and superstructure) are prefabricated in Germany (at Neptun Werft Shipyard in Rostock) and transported (on heavy-lift barges) to Finland for assembly at the Turku shipyard.
• Cruise ships' cabins are modular (prefabricated and later assembled at the shipyard) and made by the subsidiary Piikkio Works Oy, which has a factory in Piikkio Finland (approx 20 km / 13 mi to the east from Turku).
• Cruise ships' public spaces are also prefabricated (and later drydock-assembled) and made by the subsidiary Shipbuilding Completion Oy (in Turku).
• Technology design and engineering services are provided by the subsidiary ENGnD Oy (Rauma Finland).

Turku's shipbuilding business started with the Wartsila company. Construction works on the yard started in May 1974. The shipyard became operational in 1979. Here Wartsila developed new shipbuilding methods. Hulls were constructed with a modular design (assembled in modules), which increased productivity but also required indoor facilities for all the welding and sheet metal works. In 1979, Wartsila inaugurated the yard's Perno computing center, starting the world's first computer-aided shipbuilding production of vessel modules. In 1984 was introduced the CAD system.

In October 1987, Wartsila and Valmet merged together their shipbuilding businesses into the new company "Wartsila Marine". However, price calculation errors (among other reasons) resulted in Wartsila Marine's bankruptcy in 1989. In November 1989, a new shipbuilding company was established and named Masa-Yards. Its owners were Finland (state), Suomen Yhdyspankki (Nordea Bank) and all the shipowners which vessels were still unfinished at the shipyards in Perno and Helsinki. By 1991, Masa-Yards' major owner was the Norwegian company Kvaerner, which bought out the stakes of Finland and the shipowners. In 1991, the company was renamed to Kvaerner Masa-Yards. Among the company's shiporders were a Japanese cruise ship (by NYK Line) and 4x LNG carriers (by NGSCO / UAE).

In the late-1990s, Kvaerner Masa's Permo Shipyard started building RCI-Royal Caribbean's Voyager-class cruise ships. The first vessel from this series was Voyager of the Seas (1999) followed by Explorer of the Seas (2000) and Adventure of the Seas (2001). Later, RCI ordered two modified Voyager-class (larger) vessels - Navigator of the Seas (2002) and Mariner of the Seas (2003). In 2001, the shipyard was acquired by the Norwegian company Aker ASA. In 2005, the three Aker-owned shipbuilding yards (Kvaerner Masa and Rauma) merged into the company Aker Finnyards (renamed to "Aker Yards" in 2006).

In 2008, the South Korean shipbuilding corporation STX acquired Aker Yards and renamed the company to "STX Europe". STX Europe was headquartered in Oslo Norway and operated 21 large shipyards in South America (Brazil), Asia (Vietnam) and Europe (STX France, Norway, Finland, Romania). In September 2014, Meyer Werft acquired 70% of STX Finland. Also then, Meyer Werft bought Turku Shipyard from STX Europe (fka Aker Yards, until 2012 subsidiary of South Korea's STX Corporation). The remaining 30% were state-owned stakes (by Finland). In 2015, Finland's stake was bought by Meyer Werft.

Meyer Werft is a family-owned and managed company. In 1997, it became part of Meyer Neptun Group (with the acquisition of Neptun Werft in Rostock). In 2014, Finland's Turku shipyard (named Meyer Turku Oy) was also added to the group.

In 2017, the Turku shipyard increased its investments for new steel-cutting equipment from the planned EUR 75 million to EUR 185 million. The investments included a profile cutting line, a plate cutting line and a panel line to the steel halls. The new equipment was ordered to boost Meyer Turku's steel production in order to fulfill the record-breaking shipbuilding order book 2017-2024. The new laser-hybrid technology is basically digitally-controlled welding. In November 2017 was installed a new lifting crane (height 120 m / 394 ft, capacity 1200 tons) manufactured by the Finnish company Konecranes Plc. Meyer Turku currently has over 2200 employees.

In May 2018 Meyer Turku announced a 5-year investment plan of EUR 200 million for shipyard infrastructure improvements, implementing new technologies and expanding its design team and staff (from 1900 to around 4000. In June 2018, Scandinavia's largest gantry crane was delivered to Meyer Turku. The Goliath crane (by KoneCranes) has height 120 m, rail span 154 m, track length 750 m, lifting capacity 1200 tons, lifting height 90 m. It is used for lifting large prefabricated blocks during the construction of world's largest cruise liners.

Turku cruise terminal