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sandra

Oct 29
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Havila Kystruten Requests Postponing

By 2020 Newsletter week 44

Havila has asked the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications for permission to delay the start of the coastal route, normally planned for 1 January 2021.

After Havila Kystruten won one of the transport contracts (and Hurtigruten the two others), the company ordered four new ships: two in Turkey, two in Spain. The Spanish yard went bankrupt. On top, the pandemic delayed the construction at Tersan.

As a stop gap solution Havila was going to charter other ships. But why charter ships when the route between Bergen and Kirkenes is basically closed because of corona. That is what Havila wants to know from Norway.

“As long as the corona is ravaging and there are strict travel restrictions, the market situation means that there is no need for full traffic on the coastal route. We have therefore asked the Ministry of Transport and Communications for clarification of what is expected, and also whether they believe that a replacement vessel is needed,” the CEO of Havila Kystruten, Arild Myrvoll, says in a press release.

Oct 29
Love1

New Ferries for the Molde – Vestnes Route

By 2020 Newsletter week 44

The Norwegian Molde – Vestnes connection will be served by three newly built electric ferries and two modern, rebuilt ferries.

MALMEFJORD, TOMREFJORD and VESTREFJORD are the three new electric ferries that have been designed by Multi Maritime and under construction at the Sedef shipyard. (107m, 399 pax, 120 CEU, first unit in Q1, 2020)

The sister ships HARØYFJORD and KARLSØYFJORD were built in 2013 and have larger capacities than the new vessels. These two ferries are now being refurbished.

Due to delays related to the pandemic, the connection will also be served with the transition vessels PREIKESTOLEN and SELBJØRNSFJORD.

The Molde – Vestnes connection has ferry departures every 20 minutes.

Oct 29
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Viking Line’s Cooperation Negotiations Have Concluded

By 2020 Newsletter week 44

Viking Line has concluded its cooperation negotiations concerning land-based staff in Finland and Åland. Similar negotiations in Sweden were concluded in September, while negotiations with land-based staff in Estonia are expected to be completed in October.

The negotiations have involved the entire company’s land-based staff of about 570 people in Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Åland. The measures have led to a reorganization, cuts, centralization and streamlining of some functions as well as changes in some people’s job descriptions in order to better meet the company’s needs. Nearly 200 people have been affected by the negotiations, and staff cuts amounts to a number of 180.

About 70 people will be offered new jobs and contracts.  In addition to the staff cuts, most of Viking Line’s land-based and shipboard staff will continue to be on part-time or full-time furlough.

As for shipboard staff, the Swedish-flagged VIKING CINDERELLA concluded negotiations in accordance with the Swedish Act on Co-Determination in the Workplace in October, with the result being a staff reduction of 76 jobs. Some of these people may be offered work in jobs that have changed. On the Estonian-flagged Viking XPRS, negotiations on staff reductions were concluded, with the result being a staff reduction of 56 jobs.

Oct 29
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FERRY PORTS

By 2020 Newsletter week 44

Proman To Build World’s Largest Green Methanol Plant In Ghent

Proman joined nine other private- and public-sector partners on Wednesday 21 October to mark the launch of the North-C-Methanol project, which will be the largest renewable hydrogen-to-methanol complex in the world.

Two plants – a 65-MW electrolyser fed by renewable power, and a methanol plant – on the Rodenhuize peninsula of the North Sea Port Ghent will be built. Together these two plants will form North-C-Methanol, which aims to reduce annual CO2 emissions by 140,000 tons while generating 44,000 metric tons of renewable methanol locally. This methanol can be used as a feedstock by the local chemical industry, and as a sustainable fuel for ships, road vehicles and trains.

Oct 29
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Port of Kapellskär Gets EU Funding

By 2020 Newsletter week 44

Port of Kapellskär, together with Port of Naantali, has been granted EU “Motorways of the Seas” funding to reduce, among other things, air pollutant emissions from shipping.

  • Shore power (no engines while in port)
  • Automatic mooring system
  • New passenger tower for easier embarkation/disembarkation

The project to provide onshore power connections has also been awarded funding from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

The project will start during October/November 2020 and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023.

Oct 29
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TECHNOLOGY

By 2020 Newsletter week 44

HySHIP Project Clinches EUR 8 Million Funding Award

Wilhelmsen and its partners received EUR 8 million in EU support to build TOPEKA, a coastal roro ship powered by liquid green hydrogen.

The revolutionary HySHIP project embraces 14 European partners collaborating on the design and construction of this new ro-ro demo vessel running on liquid green hydrogen (LH2), as well as the establishment of a viable LH2 supply chain and bunkering platform.

The ship will be operated by Norwegian maritime industry group Wilhelmsen and will distribute LH2 to hydrogen hubs along the Norwegian coast. It is slated to be operational from 2024.

Shipyard has not been decided yet.

Oct 29
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IN THE MEDIA

By 2020 Newsletter week 44

Public Aid to Brittany Ferries Reaches EUR 258 million

  • 75% of traffic lost
  • Cherbourg, Saint-Malo, Roscoff and Le Havre have been closed
  • Only 6 of 12 vessels in operation

Regional aid:

  • Somanor (Normandie region, financing the ships chartered to Brittany Ferries) EUR 45m
  • Somabret (Bretagne region, financing the ships chartered to Brittany Ferries) EUR 40m
  • (Somanor+Somabret: five-year extension of the amortization period of the ships and a support for major repairs for five years)

State aid:

  • Credit line EUR 117m with State guarantee of EUR 105.3m
  • EUR 8.3m partial unemployment (until end of August)
  • EUR 15m exemption of social contributions of seafarers (for 2021)
  • Like all French shipping companies BF already enjoys the employer exemption for these social contributions. The State therefore adds a sum of EUR 44.6m for the period 2017-mid 2020.

Putting things in perspective:

  • CMA CGM has secured a EUR 1.05 billion State Guaranteed Loan
  • Air France has a EUR 4 billion loan.
Oct 29
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SHORT NEWS

By 2020 Newsletter week 44

ANEN LINES SA is officially the buyer of the HSC AEOLOS KENTERIS 1.

The company won the auction sale in November 2019. However, they didn’t manage to pay the full amount of money and the tender for the ship was about to be repeated in October 2020.

ANEN managed to pay the agreed amount just in time and the laid-up vessel was awarded to them.

ANEN has also acquired Nel lines’ THEOFILOS and MYTILENE in similar tenders. Both ships are laid up at Elefsis bay since many years.

STENA FORECASTER replaces MISIDA on P&O’s Liverpool – Dublin as from 2 November

In the last year, the Huelva-Canarias route operated jointly by Baleària and Fred. Olsen Express has presented a positive growth, despite the pandemic .

Both passenger and vehicle transport have increased by 25% compared to 2019 and in the case of cargo, the increase has been 30%.

Two years after the start of the route, both the president of Baleària, Adolfo Utor, and the CEO of Fred. Olsen, SA, Andrés Marín, coincide in pointing out that the degree of satisfaction with respect to the evolution of traffic on the route is very high.

The Canary Bridge Seaways (CBS) consortium has carried 40,000 passengers, 22,200 vehicles and 460,000 linear meters of freight since November 2018, when the route was inaugurated.

Due to the docking of Tallink Grupp’s shuttle vessel STAR for technical works between 29 October and 3 November 2020, Tallink Grupp is making changes to the schedule of the Tallinn-Helsinki route.

BALTIC QUEEN and VICTORIA I will replace STAR and will operate on the Tallinn-Helsinki route.

STAR will return to its normal operating schedule in the afternoon of Wednesday, 4 November.

Color Group AS has exercised an option for another 6 months of general deferment of installments, with liquidity effect of approx. NOK 200 mill. (Oslo Stock Exchange)