On August 5, 2023, Aegean Sea Lines’ ANEMOS (ex-ROSELLA) made her debut on the Piraeus – Western Cyclades line. The ship underwent a 5-month interior- and exterior renovation and eventually entered service on the Piraeus – Serifos – Sifnos – Milos and Piraeus – Sifnos – Ios – Santorini lines.
Photo: Kostas Papadopoulos
On August 7, 2023, Seajets’ SPORADES STAR (ex-ST ELOI) replaced the HSC SUPERRUNNER JET on the Inter-Cyclades service.
The ship’s first sailing was from the Port of Lavrion to Kythnos – Kea and Syros.
Then she will perform, until August 26, 2023, the Syros – Tinos – Andros, Syros – Paros – Serifos – Sifnos – Kimolos – Milos and Syros – Paros – Naxos – Ios – Sikinos – Folegandros – Kimolos – Milos.
Photo: Kostas Papadopoulos
“The ro-ro market is presently very strong with good rates,” is a quote on the news section of the Godby Shipping website.
Godby has announced charter contracts for the following vessels:
BALTIC BRIGHT: charter contract with Holmen Paper extended with one year, including an option for 2025. The ro-ro will continue transporting paper from Hallstavik and Norrköping in Sweden to Sheerness, United Kingdom.
The agreement with Holmen includes a substantial investment in fuel saving and emission reduction systems.
MISTRAL is presently on charter to Smyril Line until December 2023.
Directly after that, MISTRAL will be chartered to the Spanish ro-ro operator Suardiaz Shipping Lines. The intention is to use the vessel on Suardiaz’ new service between Vigo and Liverpool.
Before the new charter, will go through a five-year class renewal docking including installation of systems for increasing the energy efficiency of the vessel and painting with low-friction hull paint.
The charter contract is including options for a period of up to three years.
MIMER: CMA CGM has extended the contract until December 2024. MIMER – and before that the sister vessel MIDAS – has been running the Leeward Island (Caribbean) traffic for CMA CGM continuously since April 2012.
The fleet situation is as follows:
| MIDAS | TransProCon | December 2023 |
| MIMER | CMA CGM | December 2024 |
| MISTRAL | Smyril
Suardiaz |
December 2023 +
max until December 2026 |
| BALTIC BRIGHT | Holmen | December 2024 + option 2025 |
| LYSVIK and LYSBRIS | DFDS | December 2024 + options 2030 |
| MISANA and MISIDA | Sea-Cargo | December 2026 + option 2031 |
For more information, read Godby Shipping’s Flaskposten (messages in a bottle)
Gotlandsbolaget and Viking Line formed a joint company to develop and offer cruises with BIRKA STOCKHOLM, between Stockholm-Mariehamn and Stockholm-Mariehamn-Visby. [in Swedish]
In March 2023, Gotlandsbolaget acquired BIRKA STOCKHOLM for approximately EUR 38 million and has now agreed to sell 50% of the vessel to Viking Line for EUR 19 million.
Wasaline continues to show record figures in traffic between Vaasa (Finland) and Umeå (Sweden).
Up: passenger and vehicle volumes.
Down: freight volumes, due to the economic downturn.
+7% passengers (67,029) in July 2023
+12.5% passengers in H1, 2023
+16.4% cars (17,625) in July 2023
+28.2% buses (50) in July 2023
-14.4% cargo lane metres (26,188) in July 2023
“We are very satisfied with the summer so far, and the booking status for August looks promising as well,” says Peter Ståhlberg, Managing Director of Wasaline.
New IEA (International Energy Agency) medium-term report sees oil use for transport going into decline after 2026, but overall consumption is expected to be supported by strong petrochemicals demand.
Growth in the world’s demand for oil is set to slow almost to a halt in the coming years, with the high prices and security of supply concerns highlighted by the global energy crisis hastening the shift towards cleaner energy technologies, according to a new IEA report released today.
The Oil 2023 medium-term market report forecasts that based on current government policies and market trends, global oil demand will rise by 6% between 2022 and 2028 to reach 105.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) – supported by robust demand from the petrochemical and aviation sectors. Despite this cumulative increase, annual demand growth is expected to shrivel from 2.4 mb/d this year to just 0.4 mb/d in 2028, putting a peak in demand in sight.
In particular, the use of oil for transport fuels is set to go into decline after 2026 as the expansion of electric vehicles, the growth of biofuels and improving fuel economy reduce consumption.
Since last Sunday, August 6, HSC VILLA DE AGAETE has been covering the San Sebastián de La Gomera-Los Cristianos high-speed line, in which it makes three daily trips from Monday to Saturday and four trips on Sundays.
Likewise, the ferry VOLCÁN DE TABURIENTE now covers the Santa Cruz de La Palma-Los Cristianos direct line and vice versa, with two trips on Fridays.
Alaska Marine Highway (Alaska State Ferry) has published a guidebook for investment through the next twenty years, setting a vision for service in 2045 and identifying incremental investments in the short-, medium-, and long-term to achieve the vision of a lifeline service for Alaska.
Click on the picture to read the 73-page document.
Cepsa will supply second-generation (“2G”) biofuels for 84 voyages of Naviera Armas Trasmediterránea from the Port of Algeciras, reinforcing its commitment to sustainable fuels for maritime transport in Spain.
These biofuels are produced at the San Roque Energy Park (Campo de Gibraltar, Cádiz) from agricultural waste that would otherwise end up in landfills, thus promoting the circular economy.
The nearly 100 tons of renewable diesel supplied will avoid 63 tons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to planting 750 trees.
Biofuels can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to conventional fuels, playing a key role in decarbonization of hard-to-electrify sectors like maritime transport.
Source: CEPSA
In July 2023 AS Tallink Grupp transported 797,846 passengers, which is an 11.1% decrease compared to July 2022.
The number of cargo units decreased by 27.8% to 23,597 units and the number of passenger vehicles by 1.5% to 125,118 units year-on-year.
It must be noted that Tallink has several ships chartered out, which affected the capacity on the own routes.
