The Board of Directors has appointed Brian Thorsted Hansen (53) as the new CEO of Fjord Line.
Thorsted Hansen has extensive business experience and has for the past 14 years worked at DFDS, formerly serving as Vice President and Head of Business Unit Group Passenger.
How it was:
How it will be as from January 2021:
KiwiRail has named Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) based in Ulsan, South Korea as its preferred shipyard to build the two new Interislander ferries.
The aim is to have the final shipbuilding contract signed by mid-2021 and construction of the ferries underway by late 2022.
Once Kvarken Link’s newbuilding AURORA BOTNIA enters service in May 2021, the well-traveled WASA EXPRESS (1981) will move from the icy waters of the Gulf of Botnia to the Red (hot) Sea.
New owner will be UME Shipping LLC.
“With our latest acquisition, we will be the first operator with a battery hybrid ferry in the Red Sea”, says Mr Mohamed Badawy, Chairman and owner of UME Shipping.
The Court of Milan gave its green light to the request received from Moby and Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione (Tirrenia) to postpone until the end of March the expiring date for submitting a debt restructuring plan to be submitted to bondholders and banks.
The first expiring date was 28 October 2020 and was already prolonged for two months but now the Onorato-controlled group obtained from the court a further three months thanks to a recently approved law related with the Covid-19 measures to support companies based in Italy.
Some sources revealed to Ferry Shipping News that one of the two alternative options informally submitted to the creditors by Moby’s top management would foresee the set-up of a newly built vehicle company in which some ferries bound for sale would be transferred.
On 3 January, 2021, HSW’s ARIADNE arrived in Piraeus after a 32-month charter to Tirrenia. The charter started in April 2018 on the Napoli-Cagliari-Palermo line.
Unconfirmed Greek reports say she might be chartered by another Italian company.
A-SHIPS Management has opened reservations for 2021 on the Brindisi – Corfu – Igoumenitsa line.
The Company also offers connections from Brindisi to Igoumenitsa in the winter, while in summer it offers direct trips to Corfu.
They annually offer up to 6 departures a week from Brindisi to Igoumenitsa and from 16/07/21 to 06/09/21 up to 3 departures a week from Brindisi to Corfu.
Sea-Cargo initiated major changes to the already well-established liner system in the North Sea. Since 2001, Sea-Cargo have offered seafreight between Western Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and UK with its roro and general cargo vessels.
As of week 1, this will be extended to also include Sweden and Poland (Swinoujscie, Gothenburg and Lysekil) as part of a TOTAL reorganisation with NEW transport routes, DOUBLE capacity and a completely NEW FLEET adapted to a modern and future-oriented transport system – where all cargo will be handled with load carriers (cassettes).
The fleet also includes the SC CONNECTOR. This roro vessel has been rebuilt and equipped with rotor sails.
The port authority of Palermo made public the choice of Grimaldi Lines to add a port call in Sicily in the Cagliari – Salerno maritime link currently covered with the ropax ferry VENEZIA.
Until last October this route was served by the Naples-based shipping company with roro ships but then announced an extension for the passenger traffic with the introduction of the ropax vessel capable of transporting up to 1,000 passengers and 2,500 lane metres.
The first call of VENEZIA in Palermo is expected on 16 January.
Photo: Grimaldi
