The Switch Buys Wärtsilä Marine Drives Business

Finland based drive train technology specialist The Switch said it has closed a deal on October 31 to purchase Wärtsilä’s Norway-based marine power drives product range for megawatt-class applications. Backed by Yaskawa, this acquisition aims to provide a platform for the operations to focus on developing its core competences together.

“This business unit fits into our own long-term strategy to offer environmental energy solutions for marine,” said Jukka-Pekka Mäkinen, President and CEO of The Switch. “There are strong synergies between us when it comes to opening new markets and channels for these products and the possibility to expand our businesses.”

Included in the deal is the power drives manufacturing factory and state-of-the-art test center in Stord, Norway, as well as an R&D facility in Trondheim.

“The Switch aims to be a major player in the marine drive business. We already have a good position globally in marine. And now with this acquisition, we will have more products to sell to our customers and more know-how to apply them in state-of-the-art solutions for green shipping, which is the clear trend in the industry. Through Yaskawa, we can also provide more customers with access to these proven top-of-the-line products in the global market,” Mäkinen continued.

The Switch Marine Drives Norway AS starts off by celebrating the assembly of its serial number 1,000 drive and is now open for business.

“As we now start as part of The Switch, we’re also extremely pleased to have achieved our 1,000th drive milestone,” said Asbjorn Halsebakke, who will be responsible as General Manager for The Switch Marine Drives Norway AS in Stord. “For us, this means that we’ve been able to build up the experience necessary to make our power drives offering the undisputable leader in rugged operational environments.”

The Switch will continue to be a supply chain partner of Wärtsilä for marine drives while also being able to open up the product offering to other customers. To date, nearly 1,000 power drives have been used as certified and proven elements within Wärtsilä’s systems in applications ranging from propulsion to drilling. This makes them attractive to other marine customers who seek to reduce risk by upgrading to more advanced drive train solutions and hybrid systems, the company said.