Rautaruukki is a Finnish pusher vessel owned and operated by ESL Shipping. It is part of the Finnpusku integrated tug and barge system developed in the 1980s by Finnlines, a Finnish shipping company that also managed the vessel until 2003, in co-operation with Rautaruukki for the transportation needs of the steel company. Rautaruukki, built by Hollming in Rauma, Finland, was delivered on 30 October 1986 and has since been used mainly to supply raw materials to the Raahe Steel Works.
Rautaruukki has an identical sister vessel, Steel, which was delivered in 1987 as Finn. The vessel capsized in 1990, but was rebuilt, renamed and returned to service in 1991.
Development and construction
The development of the Finnpusku system dates back to the 1960s when Finnlines developed the first version of the icegoing pusher-barge system. While the concept was not pursued further due to various problems, an upgraded version was developed in the 1970s. In the late 1970s Rautaruukki Oy began transporting raw materials to the steel mill in Raahe by towed barges and found them suitable for the steel company's transportation needs. However, due to the poor maneuverability of the barges and their inability to operate in winter conditions, Rautaruukki decided to investigate if it would be possible to design a pusher-barge system that could also be operated in ice conditions. When Finnlines was consulted, it presented the Finnpusku system it had developed and the two companies signed a development contract. Later Finnlines performed several feasibility studies which showed that a pusher-barge system would be the most economical and efficient method of transporting bulk cargoes on the relatively short routes of the Baltic Sea.
The initial plan was to establish shipping companies for each vessel of the Finnpusku system under the joint ownership of several large Finnish industrial and shipping companies, including Rautaruukki and Finnlines, which would also manage the vessels. However, due to delays in negotiations Rautaruukki, concerned about the continuous supply of raw materials to the Raahe Steel Works, decided to order one pusher and two barges for itself and signed a building contract with Hollming on 29 September 1984. The first pusher of the Finnpusku system, Rautaruukki, was laid down on 27 June and launched on 20 December 1985.
Pusher Rautaruukki and barges Kalla and Tasku, built by a Portuguese shipyard Estaleiros Navais de Setubal in Setúbal and outfitted in Rauma, were delivered to Rautaruukki on 31 October 1986. When the two pushers and five barges of the Finnpusku system entered service in 1986–1987, it was estimated that they would carry one third of the ten million tons of bulk cargo arriving in Finland by sea every year.
Career
While the jointly owned pusher Finn was time-chartered by the transportation department of Rautaruukki only when the steel company required additional capacity, Rautaruukki was used since the beginning solely to supply the Raahe Steel Works with raw materials. The pusher-barge combinations transported different bulk cargoes from various ports of the Baltic Sea, such as limestone from the port of Storugns in Gotland, iron ore concentrate from Luleå, Sweden, and coal from various Eastern European ports.
After initial issues were solved, the Finnpusku system was found out to be suitable for the transportation needs of Rautaruukki in both port-to-port transport and lightening large bulk carriers outside the port of Raahe. By the end of 1987 the amount of cargo transported by the Finnpusku system, 7.5 million tons per year, had grown beyond the capability of the transportation department that was under the central administration of the steel company, so on 1 May 1988 a subsidiary company, JIT-Trans, was established to deal with both the parent company's own cargoes and external shipping business.
In 1989, JIT-Trans signed a long-term contract with SSAB for the transportation of iron ore concentrate and pellets from Luleå to Oxelösund. Since Finland and Sweden had no reciprocity agreement for cabotage, part of the Finnpusku system had to be transferred to the Swedish Register of Ships. Rautaruukki sold pusher Rautaruukki and barges Kalla and Tasku to new joint shipping companies formed by the Finnish companies' Swedish subsidiaries. Despite the changes in ownership and flag Finnlines retained the management of the vessels through its Swedish subsidiary.
Rautaruukki returned under the Finnish flag in 1996 after the ownership was transferred to a Finnish financial institution Merita Rahoitus (nowadays known as Nordea Rahoitus).