Our heritage

From metal workshop to pioneers in fuel systems

From metal workshop to pioneers in fuel systems

Auramarine was founded in July 1974 in response to increasing subcontracting and design service demands in the shipbuilding industry. Our initial business idea was to meet these needs, as well as developing the design and manufacture of cargo handling equipment.
Over the following year the company widened its portfolio to include elevators and belt conveyors for the shipbuilding industry and also started to design and manufacture mineral oil separator units. New production facilities were taken into use in Littoinen, Finland, in 1976. This year also marked the milestone of our first heavy fuel oil (HFO) supply unit delivery.

Auramarine has always built its product range in response to market demand. After the mid-1970s our manufacture of mineral oil separator units started and towards the end of the decade, our business focus shifted form cargo handling equipment to auxiliary units.

The use of HFO as a marine fuel increased and Auramarine launched its booster units, a series of mass-customised auxiliary units. A set of programmed output calculations, dimensional drawings and options helped to find the best fit for each customer’s engine.

Conveyor
Conveyor
Hatch covers
Hatch covers
Auramarine history separator unit
Auramarine history separator unit

At the turn of the decade, 80 percent of our production efforts consisted of skid-mounted units, while separator and cargo handling equipment production ended. In 1997, our manufacturing efficiency was taken to the next level by making use of novel pipe-branching and bending tools that had previously not been used in the industry. In the same year Auramarine was awarded its first ISO 9001 quality management certificate.

Modular booster designs were introduced in the early 2000s when the Auramarine booster AMB-Mc product family entered the market. In 2014 the focus shifted even more towards individual customer's needs and today Auramarine is known for its customised and flexible project-specific portfolio.

In 2017, the FuelSafe™ fuel changeover system was introduced, offering a cost-efficient, rapid method for switching between segregated fuel tanks and enabling ship operators to comply with sulphur emission control area (SECA) requirements.

In 2022 Auramarine introduced one of the industry’s first Methanol Fuel Supply Units to meet the demand for methanol as a promising future fuel.

This is only the beginning of our story; we will continue to meet customer demands and provide proven, value-adding products and services through world-class fuel supply system expertise.

Auramarine factory in the early days
Auramarine factory in the early days
Cooling unit
Cooling unit

Expanding markets and operations

In the early years, Auramarine’s main market was domestic shipyards in Finland. By the mid-1980s, the market had expanded to all Nordic countries and at end of the 1980s to European shipyards as well. Our first booster unit sold to the South Korea market was in 1989, while exports to Japan had begun two years earlier.

The growth of our export business required a local presence and the first Auramarine representatives started, firstly mainly in Europe, for example in Norway, the Netherlands and in Spain. In the 1990s, as exports expanded to Asia, the representative network was strengthened by representatives in China, South Korea, Japan and Singapore.

Investments continued in 2006 with an additional warehousing space in Littoinen and a further production facility in China. In 2008, the number of auxiliary units manufactured in China surpassed the number manufactured in Finland.

In 2014, we made the strategic decision to outsource production in Littoinen and following that, our production facility in China focused fully on assembly and testing.

Today, our customers are served in over 20 countries by a strong, dedicated representative network.

In 1989, the Finnish family company Hollming acquired the majority stake in Auramarine and we have been a part of the company ever since.

Auramarine celebrating 30 years with Hollming Group
Auramarine celebrating 30 years with Hollming Group in October 2019

In 2001, Auramarine Asia Ltd was established in Shanghai, China, to enable us to be closer to our customers and to offer better customer service in the growing Asian market. The 20th Anniversary was celebrated in August 2021 and the production moved to new premises in Shanghai in the beginning of year 2023.

Auramarine Asia personnel
Auramarine Asia 20 years in 2021
Congrats Auramarine Asia Aug 2021
Auramarine HQ personnel congratulating Auramarine Asia on 20th Anniversary

Auramarine is an expert organisation serving its customers from design to delivery and during the lifetime of the fuel system. Understanding the needs of our customer and finding solutions together continues to be a part of our heritage. Our personnel are committed to the ‘family’ and long careers are not an exception. Our ability to fulfil customers’ technical requirements, combined with a right price-quality ratio has enabled us to complete over 15,000 auxiliary unit deliveries to ships and power plants all over the world.