WARTSILA

History

Year	Detail
1834	Wärtsilä was established on 12 April when the governor of the county of Karelia approved the construction of a sawmill by Rapids in the municipality of Tohmajärvi. Some years later, the mill became the property of N. L. Arppe.
1898	The sawmill and iron works company was renamed Wärtsilä Ab, which became Ab Wärtsilä Oy in 1907.
1935	Wärtsilä acquired a majority holding in Kone—ja Siltarakennus Oy (Machine and Bridge Construction Ltd), gaining control of the Hietalahti shipyard (founded in 1865) in Helsinki and the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard (founded in 1741) in Turku.
1938	Kone ja Silta (Machine and Bridge) group merged with Wärtsilä, the iron mill Taalintehdas, and the Turku, Pietarsaari, and Vaasa subsidiaries.
1942	The diesel engine era began when Wärtsilä signed a license agreement with Friedrich Krupp Germania Werft AG in Germany. The first diesel engine was produced in Turku in November 1942.
1959	In June 1959, the first Wärtsilä designed diesel engine, the Wärtsilä Vasa 14 (with only three cylinders), was started for the first time.
1978	The company acquired 51% of the NOHAB diesel business from Bofors in Sweden, marking the beginning of Wärtsilä’s international manufacturing operations.
1990	Wärtsilä was merged with Lohja and the company was renamed as Metra Oy Ab. Metra was an international industrial corporation focusing on building-related activities and the diesel engine business.
1997	In 1997, Metra and Fincantieri agreed to merge Wärtsilä Diesel, New Sulzer Diesel, and Diesel Ricerche, creating a new company called Wärtsilä NSD Corp.
2000	Metra became Wärtsilä. An extraordinary meeting of Metra shareholders on September 13th approved the Board of Directors' proposal to rename the group Wärtsilä.
2001	Wärtsilä expands into biopower and acquires Finnish company Sermet Oy. Sermet Oy specializes in small and medium-sized boiler plants running on biofuels, oil, and gas.
2003	Wärtsilä and China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) announced a joint venture to manufacture propellers in China.
2007	Wärtsilä and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd signed an agreement to establish a 50/50-owned joint venture in Korea to manufacture dual-fuel engines for LNG (liquefied natural gas) carriers.
2008	The company joint ventured with Metso, combining Metso’s Heat & Power business with Wärtsilä’s Biopower business.
2008	Wärtsilä Services opened and expanded offices and workshops in Namibia, Chile, Brazil, Madagascar, Azerbaijan, China, Turkey and Dubai.
2015	The company launched a new Wärtsilä 31 engine, which Guinness World Records acknowledged as the world’s most efficient 4-stroke diesel engine.
2017	The company tested the automatic wireless induction charging system on a hybrid-powered coastal ferry, the first commercial ferry in the world to operate with high-power wireless charging capability for its batteries.
2022	Wärtsilä released its Wärtsilä 32 Methanol engine and MethanolPac, a dedicated fuel supply system for methanol.
2022	Wärtsilä introduced its new Wärtsilä 25 engine, the first Wärtsilä engine to run on ammonia as a fuel.
2023	The company signed an operations and maintenance agreement with Brazilian utility Rio Amazonas Energia (RAESA) to provide full operations and maintenance support for the Cristiano Rocha power plant in Manaus, Brazil.
2023	The company partnered with Carnival Corp. to reduce plastic waste in a sustainability pilot project.
2024	The company collaborated with energy solutions business AVK-SEG to deliver on-site power generation for data centers.
2024	The company partnered with Aqualectra to support Curaçao’s decarbonization with a new power plant to balance renewables.