The Shipping Ministry is granting Greek coastal shipping a new lease of life with its decision to include subsidized ferry services to remote islands in the Public Investments Program, increasing the funds for this domain from 90 million to 130 million euros, as Minister Yiannis Plakiotakis announced on Wednesday.
Brittany Ferries has embarked on a series of ‘dry runs’ as part of wider plans to prepare for the possible consequences of a no-deal Brexit on both sides of the Channel.
Last week’s trial involved around 100 freight vehicles travelling from the UK to France, with a total of 15 rehearsals planned between now and mid-October in eight Channel ports.
Changing A Strike Into Opportunities
Two weeks ago a strike at SAS saw my weekend at home being changed into a weekend in Malmö.
An opportunity for some Finnlines pictures!
OSK-Shiptech To Design Two New Ferries For Kiwirail, New Zealand
Danish naval architects OSK-ShipTech A/S have signed a newbuilding contract with state-owned KiwiRail for the design and development of the next generation rail-enabled ferries for the busy Cook Strait route between New Zealand’s North and South Islands.
The new ferries will strengthen and enhance the vital transport link between capitol Wellington on the North Island and Picton on the South Island. Currently, operating company Interislander is operating a fleet of three ferries – two ro-pax ferries and one train ferry.
“As part of the project, new terminals tailored to the vessels will also be developed in order to optimise the infrastructure and fully benefit of the new designs. We are of course very excited to be part of this holistic project and the continued development for KiwiRail in the region,” says Anders Ørgård, Chief Commercial Officer of OSK-ShipTech.
The new train ferries are targeted for delivery in 2024.
P&O Ferries Confirm Opening Calais – Tilbury Route And Announce Ship
The 1,600 lane meter CAROLINE RUSS (MarineTraffic) is the ro-ro that will be used for the new Calais – Tilbury P&O route.
CAROLINE RUSS is owned by a company within the Ernst Russ group.
There will be two sailings every weekday and one each on Saturday and Sunday. The eight-hour sailing will have capacity for 100 units of freight, with a total of 50,000 expected to be carried in the first 12 months. It is expected that time-sensitive supermarket goods including fresh fruit and vegetables will be transported on the route.
The new river berth at the Port of Tilbury is scheduled to open in April next year, enabling P&O Ferries to treble volumes on its existing Zeebrugge-Tilbury services to 600,000 loads of freight a year. An onward rail connection to Daventry is also expected to be operational in 2020, mirroring the rail connections linking the Port of Calais with Le Boulou, Turin and Orbassano on the Continent.
Turkish Sedef Shipbuilding Inc. announced on its website that it will lengthen STENA LAGAN and STENA MERSEY, the ferries that currently operate on Belfast – Liverpool.
Both vessels are owned by Stena Ropax Ltd, UK, and managed by Stena Line Ltd.
STENA LAGAN is planned for April 2020. This conversion will take four months.
STENA MERSEY will arrive at the yard six weeks after the first ship.
The vessels have been built in 2005 by Visentini.
The ferries swap announced last Friday by DFDS and Moby represents the last chapter of the 2018/2023 business plan of the Milan-based group launched last year and related to the reverse merger into Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione.
In the first nine months of the current year the company controlled by Vincenzo Onorato and headed by his sons Achille and Alessandro sold four ro-pax vessels:
- AURELIA and HARTMUTT PUSCHMANN before the summer.
- MOBY AKI and MOBY WONDER next autumn.
In the 2018/2023 business plan was written that Moby would sell five unidentified ro-pax ships generating EUR 305 million revenues and roughly EUR 145 million of capital gains.
Two smaller and older vessels were set for dismissal in 2019, further two modern units in 2019 and the last two ferries respectively in 2020 and 2021.
For the next few years Moby was expected to charter-in some modern and higher capacity ro-pax units (most of them from Onorato Armatori), to be deployed on the routes linking Italy mainland to Sardinia and Sicily.
Two units built in Flensburg have already been delivered and further two units will be built in China by Guangzhou Shipyard International with delivery scheduled from 2021 onwards.
The auction of the collapsed NEL LINES ferries is postponed until December 11, 2019 following an interim decision.
All these vessels are laid up at Elefsis bay and Ambelakia (Salamis) since a very long time.
Their auction was initially set on September 11 with a starting price of EUR 120,000 apart from the last fast ferry whose starting price was set to EUR 1 million, because of her better overall condition.
Moreover, in the relevant document all vessels are described to be in a very poor condition.
(links open in Fakta om Fartyg)
MYTILENE (9.124gt/1973)
THEOFILOS (13.572gt/1975)
TAXIARCHIS (5.033gt/1976)
AEOLOS KENTERIS I (6.177gt/2000)
AEOLOS KENTERIS II (5.361/2001)
Ferry company Brittany Ferries has marked two key milestones in its EUR 550 million fleet renewal programme. At the AVIC Weihai shipyard in Shandong, eastern China, shipyard workers and Brittany Ferries teams gathered to celebrate the launch of cruise-ferry GALICIA, and the start of building work for sister ship SALAMANCA.