The Sardinia Region has launched a tender for the management of the Corsica – Sardinia winter ferry link, from November to March until 2021.
Budget is an estimated EUR 2,3 million.
Applications must be submitted before September 14.
The local authority in Gijon are to provide EUR 600,000 in funding over two years for the re-launch of the ferry route between Gijón and Nantes. This was announced by the Minister of Infrastructure, Fernando Lastra, at a logistics fair.
Baleària would be the company behind the plan to reopen this Motorway of the Seas.
The new DSP (delegation of public services) has been voted on 27 July. After a period of analysing it has been decided to organise the DSP differently.
- It will only last for two years.
- Instead of supporting the transport of 360,000 pax per year, the number has been dramatically reduced to 91,000.
- Freight gets more money: up to 1.7 million lane meters will get a subsidy, instead of 1.3 million.
- New tariffs give better advantages to the islanders: -30% if the live on the island.
- Baleària launched a new Tanger Med – Malaga ro-pax and freight service on August 4.
- Intershipping’s fast monohull ferry QUEEN NEFERTITI started operating on 5 August from Algeciras to Tanger Med.
- Stena Line has replaced ro-ro BORE BAY with VIKINGLAND on the Gdynia-Nynäshamn route (freight only).
Some snapshots taken during my cruise in the Irish Sea:
The sunset picture of STENA SUPERFAST X has been taken in Holyhead. The early morning “blue hour” picture was taken the day after in Dublin. Good to see ULYSSES is back in service.
Mangalia Shipyard Will Give Damen Shipyard Group The Possibility To Build Large Ferries
It is a major thing for the Dutch shipyard group Damen: the Mangalia shipyard, formerly known as Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries (DMHI) will be operated as a joint venture with the Romanian Government. Damen will assume operational control. The yard, located on the Black Sea coast, will be renamed Damen Shipyards Mangalia. This move represents a strategic complement to Damen’s current shipyard portfolio, with the possibility for the construction and conversion of large and complex ferries, There are three drydocks with a total length of 982m and 1.6km of berthing space.
LMG Marin has been awarded the design of two battery-plug-in ferries for the Festøya-Solavågen connection (Ålesund), operated by Norled. The contract with Remontowa Shipyard and Norled was signed on 11 July.
The new ferries will be equipped with an innovative Diesel Electric Hybrid system.
- Normal operation: entire required power comes from battery packs.
- Batteries to be recharged via pantograph from the land grid, in 11 minutes.
- Shore charging system to be integrated with an automatic mooring system.
- In case of emergency: generating sets running on 100% Biodiesel.
The LMG 120-DEH design is also characterized by an innovative vehicle deck and accommodation arrangement: the passenger lounge is below the car deck.
The president of Baleària, Adolfo Utor, and his colleague of Marítima Peregar, Joaquín Pérez-Muñoz Prados, presented a new joint service on 18 July.
Both shipping companies have set up a Compañía Marítima Alborán (50/50), which has begun daily regular traffic between Melilla and Málaga.
Six connections a week are ro-pax services, one per week is for ro-ro freight only.
In addition, Compañía Marítima Alborán will operate other regular traffic with Ceuta and Tangier Med, with Malaga as homeport. This service was already operated by Peregar.
- Malaga-Ceuta: two weekly freight services
- Malaga-Tangier Med: daily, from Monday to Friday ro-ro / Saturdays and Sundays ro-pax.
The new company uses two vessels:
- DÉNIA CIUTAT CREATIVA ro-pax (399 pax / 430 cars)
- FESTIVO ro-ro (1,000 lane meter)
DFDS’ first Jinling vessel (6,700 lane meter) was launched into the Yangtze River on 16 July.
Photo: Jeppe Halkjær Pedersen / DFDS
Scandlines’ BERLIN, operating with sister vessel COPENHAGEN on the Gedser-Rostock route, had to be taken out of service to solve technical issues with the thruster. Unusual noises had been heard.
BERLIN was sent to the Fayard drydock in Odense. A spare thruster was delivered immediately from the Rolls Royce warehouse in Norway.
The subsequent investigation confirmed that the replaced thruster was damaged, and that these were actually the cause of the abnormal noises.
She was out of service from 16 to 19 July, missing a few dozens of crossings in one of the busiest periods of the year.
Photo: Siemens/ Ulrich WIrrwa