Wärtsilä wins major ship design orders from C...

Wärtsilä Corporation, Trade & Technical Press Release, 23 September
2008

Wärtsilä has received major orders for its recently established
Wärtsilä Ship Design unit. The orders were received from customers in
China, India and Germany. The Ship Design unit was set up following
the acquisitions of the ship design companies Vik-Sandvik and
Schiffko. The most recent acquisition, the Singaporean based Conan Wu
& Associates will also be part of the Ship Design unit.

The orders call for Wärtsilä to design a Deepwater Engineering Survey
Vessel, a Multi-Purpose Support Vessel, a Diving Support Vessel, and
an Emergency Towing Vessel. Each of these contracts comes as a result
of successful bids to design sophisticated tonnage.

In commenting on the new orders, Arne Birkeland, Vice President, Ship
Design, Ship Power, Wärtsilä Corporation, noted: "The design
contracts we have signed with these Chinese, Indian and German ship
owners are an indication that there is a readiness to take on
high-value, sophisticated new tonnage. We are able to offer our
customers a design which leads to better overall efficiency, improved
environmental performance and reduced life cycle costs. This has been
made possible by optimizing the design to accommodate the vessel's
various operating processes".

Jaakko Eskola, Group Vice President, Ship Power, Wärtsilä
Corporation, said: "From a strategic point of view, being able to
offer ship design services is a very important step for Wärtsilä,
since it brings us even closer to our ship owner and shipyard
customers. We can now enter into dialogue with them at an earlier
stage, when the key specifications of the vessel are being decided.
This puts us in a position to offer even more competitive solutions."

Further Mr Jaakko Eskola said: "The role of ship design is becoming
increasingly important in the value chain, due to higher integration
and more sophisticated systems onboard most vessels and increasingly
stringent environmental regulations. In addition the ship design is
more and more linked to system providers, shipyards and integrators.
Ship production is moving away from traditional ship building
countries in the west to emerging markets where there is a need for
ship design skills. We can now build upon our existing strengths and
strategies and, through Wärtsilä Ship Design, further develop our
overall capabilities to include design."

The new Wärtsilä Ship Design orders

The Deepwater Engineering Survey Vessel design is for China Oilfield
Services Ltd, and represents a 4300-dwt vessel capable of drilling
operating at deep water for geotechnical surveys and geophysical
surveys. To date, most of China's oil exploration has been in
relatively shallow waters, but there is now a need to probe deeper.

The Chinese state-owned Shanghai Salvage Company has ordered its
Multi-Purpose Support Vessel design from Wärtsilä in order to carry
out year-round tasks along the coastline of China. The key
requirement is for multi-purpose flexibility since the vessel will be
required to carry out a multitude of different operations, including
salvage, offshore engineering services, diving and ROV operations,
fire-fighting, anchor handling, ship supply, environmental
protection, and route clearing.

The 4500-dwt Diving Support Vessel design has been ordered by India's
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), and will provide a
stable platform for saturation and air-diving operations. In addition
to diving operations and construction work, the vessel is to provide
field support and will, therefore, be fitted with sophisticated
fire-fighting and oil recovery equipment.

In Europe, Wärtsilä has completed an Emergency Towing Vessel design
for the German company ARGE Küstenschutz. Because the vessel is
intended for North Sea operation, the main criteria in producing this
ultra-modern design have been manoeuvrability, and the capability of
maintaining position effectively in harsh weather conditions.

New concepts

In addition to the new orders, the Wärtsilä Ship Design unit has also
completed designs for a new anchor handling vessel, a platform supply
vessel, and a bulk carrier, all of which afford fuel consumption
reductions of as much as 25 percent. This has been made possible by
optimizing the design to accommodate the vessel's various operating
processes.


Link to pictures
Caption 1: The 105 m Deepwater Engineering Survey Vessel design for
China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL),
Caption 2: The 123 m multipurpose support vessel for China's
state-owned Shanghai Salvage Company.
Caption 3: The 110 m Diving Support Vessel design for India's Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC).
Caption 4: The Emergency Towing Vessel design for Germany's ARGE
Küstenschutz is designed to be highly manoeuvrable, capable of
maintaining position effectively in harsh weather.


Contact details:
Mr Arne Birkeland
Vice President
Ship Design, Wärtsilä Ship Power
Wärtsilä Corporation
Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]

Mr Atte Palomäki
Group Vice President, Communications
Wärtsilä Corporation
Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]

Ms Marit Holmlund-Sund
Public Relations Manager
Wärtsilä Corporation
Tel: [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail]




Wärtsilä Corporation in brief:
Wärtsilä enhances the business of its customers by providing them
with complete lifecycle power solutions. When creating better and
environmentally compatible technologies, Wärtsilä focuses on the
marine and energy markets with products and solutions as well as
services. Through innovative products and services, Wärtsilä sets out
to be the most valued business partner of all its customers. This is
achieved by the dedication of more than 17,000 professionals manning
160 Wärtsilä locations in 70 countries around the world. Wärtsilä is
listed on The Nordic Exchange in Helsinki, Finland.

www.wartsila.com