US, Canada and Finland form ICE Pact

The ‘Ice Collaboration Effort’ (ICE) is a trilateral collaboration to produce polar icebreakers to strengthen the shipbuilding industry and industrial capacity of each country.

It also aims to build closer security and economic ties through information exchange and mutual workforce development focused around building the vessels, as well as other Arctic and polar capabilities.

“Due to the capital intensity of shipbuilding, long-term, multi-ship order books are essential to the success of a shipyard,” says a statement from the Biden-Harris administration. “The governments of the United States, Canada, and Finland intend to leverage shipyards in the United States, Canada, and Finland to build polar icebreakers for their own use, as well as to work closely with like-minded allies and partners to build and export polar icebreakers for their needs at speed and affordable cost.”

As well as building the vessels for their own needs, ‘allies and partners’ will be encouraged to buy from the three countries at reduced cost as the business scales up.

The pact has been made shortly after various media reports signalled a Chinese/Russian partnership in building logistics capacity in the Arctic region.

According to US Coast Guard data, Russia has the most icebreakers in the world, with 46, 11 under construction and another four planned. 

Canada has seven, with two under construction and five planned; China has three, with one planned; and the US has five, with three planned.