After the engine room fire and a layup since 29 April, Brittany Ferries’ PONT-AVEN should resume service on 12 May.
The ship will resume its rotations on three engines. The fourth engine needs to be replaced, which will not happen before 2020.
The replacement could take eight weeks. So far, the yard has not been decided.
First Sod Turned For Port Of Ystad’s New Berths
May 2, the Polish vice Minister of Maritime Economy and Inland Waterways together with local political representatives turned the first sod in Port of Ystad’s anticipated building project. The ceremony marked the official start of the building of the Port’s new ferry berths, an extensive infrastructural project co-financed by the EU.
On Thursday afternoon, May 2, the Polish vice Minister of Maritime Economy and Inland Waterways Grzegorz Witkowski together with Ystad’s chair of the Municipal executive board, Kristina Bendz, turned the first sod in Port of Ystad’s new building project,
The name of the EU project is ”Cargo Capacity Upgrade and LNG Bunkering Swinoujscie – Ystad maritime link”. In addition to the building of two new ferry berths, the project encompasses an LNG powered vessel for the Polish shipping company Polferries, and an LNG bunkering ship for the port of Świnoujście.
Caption: Kristina Bendz, chair of the Municipal executive board of Ystad, and Poland’s vice Minister Grzegorz Witkowski broke ground for the building of Port of Ystad’s new ferry berths.
DFDS and the pension fund investor PensionDanmark signed an agreement to build a new head office for DFDS in Copenhagen.
It will be built at Marmorvej near the Copenhagen – Oslo route’s terminal.
The new headquarters will give the opportunity to gather all head-office staff and functions in the same building, and at the same time offer great and modern facilities.
The new head office will be constructed by PensionDanmark and rented by DFDS.
It will be a building offering six floors and 12,500 square meters for 700 people with offices, meeting rooms, fitness facilities, car and bike parking and a big auditorium, among other things.
DFDS plans to move in 2021.
It is planned to lengthen the passenger ferry pier in the port of Klaipeda, by 50m. Contracts have been signed. The extension of the pier will cost €1.4 million. As from 2021 customer DFDS will be able to use the extended pier.
Tallink Grupp: Cargo Revenues Continued to Increase, But Overall Revenue for Q1 Was Down
The group reports an unaudited net loss of EUR 25.3 million (net loss of EUR 19.6 million in Q1 2018) and an unaudited total revenue for the quarter of EUR 178.9 million, which is a 2.9% decrease compared to the same period last year.
At the same time, the group’s cargo business continued to increase both in volume and revenue in the first quarter of 2019. The transported cargo volumes increased in total by 2.7%, the cargo revenues increased by 1.5% or EUR 0.4 million and amounted to EUR 29.6 million in the first quarter.
In the Q1 the group made significant investments into the upgrade of its existing fleet with EUR 25.3 million invested mainly into the technical dockings of seven vessels.
Paavo Nõgene, CEO of AS Tallink Grupp said: “The challenging period of dockings is now behind us. Our vessels are fresh, modern and ready to offer our customers new and memorable experiences. We are ready and prepared for the next two quarters of our annual high season and our whole team here at Tallink Grupp will work extremely hard to improve the results of the next months and quarters of 2019.”
In Q1, revenue increased 11% to DKK 3.9bn driven by the expansion in the Mediterranean and stockpiling in UK ahead of the initial Brexit-date end of March. The Easter timing difference vs 2018 lowered passenger revenue.
EBITDA before special items increased 13% to DKK 677m driven by the Mediterranean expansion and strong performance in North Sea.
Baltic Sea’s result was lowered by one-off additional operating costs as capacity was maintained during dockings, one of which was extended. In addition, the Easter timing difference reduced passenger earnings compared to Q1 2018, especially in the Passenger business unit.
Logistics continued to improve performance in UK & Ireland. In Sweden and Belgium earnings were lower as Q1 2018 included peak earnings from a large contract.
The first in a series of six new freight ferries was delivered in February and successfully deployed in March between Istanbul and Trieste.
2019 EBITDA outlook unchanged: DKK 3.8-4.0bn (2018: DKK 3.6bn, restated)
Key figures Q1 2019
Outlook 2019 Unchanged
In Q1, Finnlines realised a good result despite the fact that the growth of Finnish exports and imports has slowed down.
Q1 (€)
In April 2019, AS Tallink Grupp transported 779,113 passengers, which is a 1.3% decrease compared to April 2018.
For information: Last year the Easter weekend started in March, with Easter Sunday on the 1st of April. This year, Easter was on the 21st, with the whole Easter weekend in April.
The number of cargo units decreased by 2.3% to 32,386 units and the number of passenger vehicles decreased by 3.7% to 84,203 units.
The group operating the Virtu Ferries catamaran services between Malta and Italy can look back on 2018 with satisfaction.
Results in € (,000) for the full year 2018
+0,5% Revenue 33,148
-3.6% Gross profit 13,993
-0.5% Operating profit 10,997
+6.8% Profit before tax 10,447
+13.3% Profit 10,909
Crisis in Venezuela: The 4 Rusty Ships That Reveal the Decline of The Most Powerful Commercial Fleet in The Country
This BBC article from Guillermo D. Olmo is about the decline of the Venezuelan company Conferry.
[DISCLAIMER: Some pictures may be disturbing to some viewers who like well-maintained ships]
