Finnish Kvaerner Masa-Yards (KMY) explains themselves as world-leader in the development of winter traffic technology and consequently in the construction of ice-breaking ships. They count more than 60 % of all ice-breakers in the world to have been built at their Helsinki Shipyard. KMY's Arctic Technology Centre (MARC), also based in Helsinki, is one of the five existing ice model testing facilities in the world, and is explained by KMY as the only one, which is part of a privately owned enterprise. Since the 1960s, KMY is systematically developing new technological solutions to enhance the competitiveness of Arctic sea transports (one of the latest comprehensive updates see HANS A1/1999, page 36). In the beginning of the 1990s, the company, in partnership with the Finnish Maritime Administration and ABB Industry of Finland, developed a new electrical propulsion system for ice-breaking vessels (see HANSA 8/1992, page 795) the trade-name of which became known as Azipod (azimuthing podded rudder propeller).
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