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C-Job Naval Architects Expands With US Office

Dutch C-Job Naval Architects will expand its business to the United States by opening a dedicated branch office in Houston, Texas.

Financial Performance Finnlines Improved Despite Slowdown Finnish Economy in H1

Key figures for January – June 2019

+2% Revenue EUR 295.5 million
+10% Result EUR 46.7 million
+7% EBITDA EUR 83.5 million

The second quarter was again the best ever.

In his comments, CEO Emanuele Grimaldi puts a lot of emphasis on what has been done, and will be done to make ferry shipping the most sustainable way of transport. More ships will be ordered.

“We have invested in emission abatement technology covering almost all our vessels and also lengthened six of our vessels in order to benefit from economies of scale. These investments have contributed to our sustainable development and e.g. the fuel consumption per transported tonne has decreased considerably. Other efforts to reduce energy consumption and emissions include changing of propeller blades, timetable planning, route optimisations as well as optimising speed, load and trim.”

“We have reduced CO2 emission between 2008 and 2018 by approximately 30%. However, while our past record in emission reduction is superb, we are looking beyond the IMO requirements. With regulators stimulating the debate on low-carbon fuels, we pledge not to lose our focus on sustainability: we will continue to improve and are on the right path. This focus on sustainability requires further investments. We have recently ordered three new green ro-ros, which will be built to produce zero emission in ports and aimed at pushing beyond the green scores of ro-ro in the Baltic region. We are also about to further order two Superstar class ro-pax vessels, in order to strengthen our well developing passenger business growth. These vessels will be the most environmentally friendly units in their category, carrying 5,800 lane metres of cargo and close to 1,000 passengers.”

Tallinn’s Old City Harbour To Introduce Automated Mooring System

Port of Tallinn has signed contracts with maritime engineering companies Trelleborg and Cavotec for the instalment of automated mooring systems at quays 5, 12 and 13 of the Old City Harbour, which is used by passenger vessels serving the Tallinn-Helsinki route.The new automated mooring systems will be installed by the end of 2020. Each quay will be equipped with six vacuum pads that will moor, hold and release the vessel. As the first vessel, Viking Line’s Viking XPRS will start using the new system in spring 2020, while Tallink’s shuttle ships and Eckerö Line’s vessel can utilise the automated system by the end of the year. Similar automated vacuum mooring system is also installed at Helsinki West Harbour.

The new mooring systems are being installed in the framework of TWIN-PORT 3 project and are being co-financed by the EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). It is a collaboration project between ferry operators (Tallink, Viking Line and Eckerö Line), the ports of Tallinn and Helsinki and the City of Helsinki for the years 2018-2023 with a total budget of EUR 61.2 million. Port of Tallinn is investing a total of EUR 15.8 million within the project.

Port of Tallinn Saw An Increased Cargo Flow In Q2

In 2019 Q2, 5.3 million tonnes of cargo and 2.9 million passengers passed through the harbours of Tallinna Sadam. Compared to the same period of previous year, the cargo volume increased by 4.3% (but mainly because of a new dry bulk terminal) and the passenger volume by 0.1%. The number of ship calls grew by 3.7% to 2039 calls.

At the end of June, Eckerö Line vessel FINBO CARGO started operating on the Muuga-Vuosaari route, serving both trucks and passengers with vehicles. Also, Tallink started to transport passengers with cars on its (mainly) freight ferry SEA WIND, already operating on the route. The positive effects of these innovations will be reflected in the results starting from the third quarter.

Marseille Fos Boosts Drive Towards Cutting Air Emissions 

Among a string of new eco-friendly initiatives, the Marseille Fos port authority is to spend EUR 20 million over the next six years to extend shoreside electrical connections for berthed vessels to every ferry, cruiseship and repair quay within the Marseille eastern harbour.

Already available on the Corsica ferry quays, the network will be expanded in two phases to cover North Africa ferry quays and the shiprepair hub by 2022 and the cruise terminal between 2022 and 2025.

The zero-emissions investment – backed by national and regional government – recognises the need to maintain the port’s value to the economy while improving the city’s waterside air quality.  Marseille Fos CEO Hervé Martel commented: “We are convinced that ecological transition is the springboard to economic growth.  That’s why we are investing heavily to become the Mediterranean’s first 100% electric port by 2025.”

Martel recently joined a regional government delegation that visited Tunisia’s transport minister and gained an undertaking for a techno-economic study into the electrification of quays at La Goulette, the port of Tunis. Such provision in Tunis as well as Marseille is seen as crucial in encouraging the two ferry operators on the route to equip their ships for the facility.

Meanwhile 12 shipping companies have qualified for 2-3% reductions in Marseille Fos port dues as a reward for cutting air emissions below regulatory requirements over the past year.

The incentive was introduced in July 2017 after the port joined the World Ports Climate Initiative, whose Environmental Ship Index (ESI) has been adopted by 50 ports handling more than a quarter of the global fleet.  The ESI measures NOx, SOx and CO2 reduction performance for ships at berth on a scale of zero to 100.  At Marseille Fos, the scheme applies to containerships and cruise vessels with scores of 35 and above, the ‘cold ironing’ mark for ships using shoreside electrical power instead of onboard diesel generators.

Freight Digitalisation Project In Portsmouth

Portsmouth International Port has awarded Hogia the contract to supply a terminal operating system to digitalise the management of freight transport, which will help to improve efficiency. The port is the second-largest cross-channel port in the UK, and offers ferry routes to destinations in France, Spain, and the Channel Islands. The port’s ferry customers, Brittany Ferries and Condor Ferries, transport over 250,000 freight units through the terminal each year.

Interferry To Back Mercy Ships Healthcare Mission

Interferry will support Mercy Ships, an international charity with the mission to increase access to healthcare in developing nations through a fleet of hospital ships. Interferry will highlight Mercy Ships at its annual conference in October and will further promote the charity to the association’s industry-wide membership.

Scottish Western Isles Ferry Transport Using Hydrogen (SWIFTH2)

Point and Sandwick Trust, in collaboration with a number of industry partners (Wood, Siemens-Gamesa, Engie, ITM, CMAL, Johnston Carmichael and Ferguson Marine), have published a feasibility study to assess the suitability of using hydrogen produced from local wind farms to power future ferry services operating in the Western Isles and West Coast of Scotland.

The study was part-funded by the Scottish Government’s Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme.

The project looked at the practical and economic feasibility of using new island wind farms to produce zero-carbon “green” hydrogen fuel for future types of clean emission ferries operating on the established Caledonian MacBrayne routes.

Of the nine routes analysed, the highest-scoring route using a small ferry on a short crossing was from Barra to Eriskay and the highest scoring route using a large ferry on a long crossing was from Stornoway to Ullapool. The hydrogen requirement for the former would be 219 tonnes and for the latter would be 3,676 tonnes. A single 4.3 MW wind turbine generator would be capable of supplying the required hydrogen for the Barra to Eriskay route, whilst fifteen turbines would be required on the Isle of Lewis.

The American Chatsworth Invests $ 400 Million In Elefsis Shipyards

According to a recent article in the Greek press, the US investment bank Chatsworth Securities LLC has agreed with Onex Elefsis Shipyards, LLC, to participate in an investment of $ 400 million in Elefsis Shipyards as part of their ongoing rescue operation.

Chatsworth Securities LLC is based in New York and apart from being a shareholder, it also becomes an institutional financial partner of Onex Elefsis Shipyards. The agreement was signed on July 19, 2019.

Onex Elefsis Shipyards has agreed to the ownership of the second largest shipyard in Greece to take 100% of the Elefsis Shipyards as strategic investor through Greek Bankruptcy Law and in particular by submitting a resolution plan for approval by the Greek courts within a period of 3 to 6 months.

Onex is already in contacts with the Greek government as well as the shipyard creditors for alternatives to restart the yard. The same model was applied by ONEX in the case of the Neorion Syros shipyard and it was a success.

The entire deal is estimated to exceed $ 400 million -in the next 15 years- and it will be the largest business rescue in the Greek shipyards history as well as one of the largest in the European history.

The investment bank Chatsworth Securities LLC was founded 20 years ago by Curt Gowdy and some veteran bankers of Wall Street. Chatsworth, which collaborates exclusively with family-friendly family organizations and agencies, has raised more than $ 3 billion through public listings, secondary offers, and share capital increases for a significant number of traditional and alternative asset management companies. It maintains strong relationships with institutional investors, including pension funds, institutions, insurance companies, hedge funds and family property management offices.

Chatsworth mainly focuses on shipping, biotechnology, real estate, insurance, transport, financial markets, capital markets, secured asset-backed loans, alternative energy, oil and gas.

Source: KATHIMERINI newspaper (23.07.2019)