Page 56: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 1997)

engine building division, Grandi

Motori Trieste (GMT), which is best equipped to handle the heavy unit sizes entailed with the 640- mm bore machine, which can deliv- er a remarkable 2-MW per cylin- der.

As the most powerful engine in the Finnish-originated range until the recent development of the 64 type, the Wartsila 46 has retained its competitive edge since it first went to sea in 1988, over a period of considerable change in market requirements.

Annual sales volume has steadily risen, and the demand prognosis is such that the company is plough- ing some FM 80 million into the development of the Turku plant to efficiently cope with an anticipated doubling in output between 1995 and 2000.

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Circle 205 on Reader Service Card factory, to provide a new engine block manufacturing cell and heavy assembly areas, is sched- uled to be completed in 1997, with new portal machining facilities due to be ready next year.

Activity at Turku is indicative of two key facets of company: firstly, a strategy of focused production, whereby each factory concen- trates on the manufacturing just one or two engine types; and sec- ondly, a policy of maintaining investment in the production facilities in the interests of unit cost and engine price competitive- ness.

Keeping close control of the manufacturing process, rather than relying heavily on licensees, has always been at the heart of the Wartsila Diesel business phi- losophy.

Elsewhere in the Finnish domain, the Vaasa factory is also the subject of heavy capital expen- diture. This is directed at getting the Wartsila 20 production unit on-stream, and bolstering capaci- ty for the 320-mm bore engines, represented both in the latest ver- sions of the ever-popular Vasa 32 type and in its new, long-term suc- cessor, the Wartsila 32.

Notwithstanding the burden it has placed on profits, cash flow and the balance sheet, the virtual renewal of the entire engine range and the modernization of factories in Finland, France and the

Netherlands, in particular, under- pin the company's long-term growth.

Wartsila NSD's net sales are expected to exceed FM 11 billion in 1997, including more than FM2 billion from various NSD compa- nies. However, costs arising from the restructuring of operations are likely to hamper performance, so that profits in relation to net sales are forecast to remain almost unchanged.

AZIPOD: Higher

Efficiencies Proven

In Tank Testing

A classic example of the Finnish propensity for design innovation and high added-value engineering is the Azipod concept, which looks set to revolutionize passenger (Continued on next page) 56 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News