As part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the EU has awarded funding of EUR 17.9 million jointly for Finnlines and its affiliates for investments in liner services, the company said in its press release.
Finnlines’ three major liner services are part of the European Motorways of the Sea programme and form an essential part of the necessary time scheduled liner service infrastructure, benefiting the Finnish foreign trade and connecting Finland to the rest of Europe. Together with partners consisting of ports and port operators from Finland, Germany, Belgium and Spain, investments of about EUR 60 million will be done to overcome the challenges brought by the new sulphur directive and thus avoiding unwanted modal backshift of cargo from sea to land on these three lines.
The core of these actions is Finnlines' environmental investment programme for emissions abatement technology (exhaust gas scrubbers) and energy efficiency improvements by changing propeller blades and improving rudder hydrodynamics.
Finnlines acted as lead applicant for several applications with a total value of EUR 88.4 million of which a substantial part was selected and funded.
Finnlines' environmental technology investment programme will total EUR 100 million and cover all services and the whole fleet of 22 fully owned and operated vessels.
Finnlines is set to be one of the best equipped shipping companies in terms of technological innovation in the markets served.