A milestone for the use of methanol as a marine fuel was achieved in the Port of Gothenburg on Monday 23 January 2023, as methanol propelled vessel STENA GERMANICA was the first non-tanker vessel in the world to be bunkered with methanol ship to ship.
Source: Press Release Port of Gotenburg
Norled has been handed over the hybrid battery-electric vessel from Oma Baatbyggeri. The vessel will mainly run on batteries when it comes into service in Sogn next year.
FREY is one of three new low-emission vessels that will operate in the Florø basin from 1 May 2024. The vessel has a modern and universal design with a large saloon and large window surfaces. It has room for 72 passengers, as well as 7 passenger cars or a 40-tonne wagon train. The 30-metre-long vessel also has a hold and a crane.
The vessel is based on Oma‘s combi-catamaran concept, but unlike previous vessels, MS “Frey” is supplied with a hybrid battery-electric propulsion system. This means that the boat can run with zero emissions of CO2 and 100% electric operation in most of the routes that they will operate in Sogn.
In May, the sister vessel will be delivered. This is also to be included in the route in Sogn. These are two of three vessels being built for Sogn route package 2 that Norled won in 2021.
Before FREY goes into service in Florø, the vessel will go for a period on the Lysefjord route in Rogaland.
NORLED also signed a contract with OMA for a new ferry.
Source: Norled
Molslinjen is now officially the new owner of ForSea, the company which operates between Helsingør and Helsingborg.
The announced transaction was recently approved by the competition authorities in Denmark and Sweden, and now the transaction has been completed.
News media ‘The Orcadian’ writes: “Two new state-of-the-art freight vessels linking Orkney and Shetland with the Scottish mainland could cost up to £70million each, and be in service in around four years time.”
“The first designs of the purpose-built ferries have been published by maritime architects Leadship, on behalf of Scottish Government-owned shipowner Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL).”
Havila Kystruten has decided only to allow motor vehicles that use fossil fuel. This means electric, hybrid and hydrogen cars cannot be transported on board the hybrid vessels.
This is the first European (semi) ferry company to implement this restriction (in a country with plenty of electric vehicles). [press release in Norwegian]
The 12-day Norwegian Coastal Route is divided between Hurtigruten (8 ships) and Havila (2 ships with 2 more under construction).
This route is both a cruise route (people staying onboard for several days or for the whole Bergen-Kirkeness-Bergen voyage) and a public transportation route.
Havila has also decided that boarding and disembarking of private vehicles will only be carried out in Bergen and Kirkenes, except for service vehicles for personnel who do necessary work on board the company’s ships, and emergency vehicles. This also assumes that these are pure fossil cars.
It is not a requirement in the agreement with the Ministry of Transport that ships on the coastal route must transport private cars.
The decision to ban non-fossil-fuel cars is based upon the risk assessment produced by Norwegian consultant firm Proactima.
Kent County Council won a £45 million bid to improve traffic flow from Dover to the EU from the UK government’s Levelling Up fund, says a Port of Dover press release.
Roger Gough, leader of Kent County Council, said enhancements will not only have a positive impact on the Dover and the surrounding area but Kent and its economy as a whole.
He talked about improving the fluidity of traffic with security checks more logically arranged, a buffer zone so you can get a lot more queuing traffic off the roads, a doubling of the border control posts and a new exit route.
“Given the new border arrangements for the European Union, the so-called Entry Exit System or EES, which may well be coming in later this year, it is doubly important that we focus on this issue.”
Broker sources report that both the ro-ro ships MARIA GRAZIA ONORATO and ALF POLLAK owned by Siem Ro-Ro and bareboat chartered by Moby-CIN, have been sub-chartered to DFDS for 24 months.
Daily rate would be EUR 25,500.
The news seems to be confirmed for ALF POLLAK since the ship has started operating early this month on the Turkey – France line operated by DFDS.
MARIA GRAZIA ONORATO, instead, is still deployed on the routes linking Belgium, Denmark and the UK for CLdN RoRo.
The Danish and Swedish competition authorities have now approved Molslinjen‘s announced purchase of ferry company ForSea.
Wallenius Wilhelmsen and project partners have secured a Horizon Europe funding totalling EUR 9m to support building a RoRo sailing vessel. Over the next five years, all aspects of planning, building, and operating a wind-powered vessel, the Orcelle Wind, will be done.
CEO of Arctic Umiaq Line, Jens-Jakob Sandgreen and Minister of Housing and infrastructure, Erik Jensen, announced that the coastal ferry SARFAQ ITTUK will call at several cities in autumn.
Arctic Umiaq Line sails in the spring and high season with 7-day operations. Starting this year, guests can join a 14-day national and 7-day express program between the 15th of September and the 17th of November.
In the 14-day program, Upernavik, Uummannaq, Qasigiannguit, Kangaatsiaq, Itilleq/Igaliku, Narsarsuaq and Nanortalik have been added as new connections. The voyage to Narsarsuaq is also planned to coincide with international flights.
Photo by Aningaaq Rosing Carlsen
