- On November 3rd, FRS Hanseferry has a special boat trip on offer on the Elbe. The idea is to follow during one hour the cargo ship that will carry the former fast ferry HALUNDER JET from Hamburg to Canada. After 15 years of service on Helgoland, the ferry will serve the FRS-owned Clipper Navigation route between Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia.
- Brittany Ferries has confirmed the charter of a Stena Line vessel under construction in China, for the routes to Spain. The charter will come with more on-board accommodation and a large garage for passenger and freight vehicles. She will replace BAIE DE SEINE and Brittany Ferries will have the option to purchase after the expiry of the initial five year charter..
Trasmediterranea posted a little video about the construction of their new ferry, which is based on the hull of the ferry originally ordered by Viking Line.
Mr Ragnar Johansson, managing director SOL Lines
Although Swedish Orient Line, or SOL, exists since 1911, it is only recently that the Swedish company started a liner service. In 2010, one of its five divisions –SOL Continent Line– began to operate a regular ro-ro service between Helsingborg and Travemünde. Now SOL Continent Line has expended significantly, and has become a main player in the ro-ro liner business.
SOL Continent Line’s managing director Ragnar Johansson invited us onboard ro-ro vessel SCHIEBORG in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, where we could witness how the ship was jam-packed with cargo.
Acciona has finally reached an agreement to sell its 92.7% stake in Trasmediterranea to the Naviera Armas Group.
Acciona’s stake is being sold for EUR 260.4 million, and the buyer will assume EUR 127.3 million of debt owed by Trasmediterranea to Acciona group companies.
The deal will foreseeably be completed in the first quarter of 2018, once it has been approved by the competition authorities.
The disposal responds to Acciona’s goal of concentrating on its core business: sustainable infrastructure and renewable energy.
Since it was acquired by Acciona in 2002, Trasmediterranea has become firmly established as Spain’s largest shipping company and one of Europe’s leading ferry operators. It sails a total of 32 routes, mainly linking mainland Spain with the Balearic Islands, North Africa and the Canary Islands.
It also provides logistics, shipping agency and cruise ship handling services, and operates five port terminals.
Last year, it transported 2.5 million passengers (+2.3%), 5.8 million lane meters of cargo (+2.3%) and 576,000 vehicles (+5.7%).
Photo © Mike Louagie
In a press release Destination Gotland’s CEO Christer Bruzelius announced that next year the company would again offer crossings between Visby (Gotland) and Västervik, in the archipelago on the Swedish east coast.
After 30 years, Destination Gotland returned to Västervik during the summer season 2017, between June 22 and August 14.
Some 57,000 passengers have been transported on 100 trips. The maximum capacity was 70,000.
Photo © Mike Louagie
P&O Ferrymasters has added a 5th rotation per week to its new rail link between Poznan (Poland) and Rotterdam. This increase in capacity is the result of exceptional demand.
The train launched in June and operates in conjunction with Polish logistics company Erontrans. It provides a link between the CLIP terminal in Swarzedz-Poznan to Europoort in Rotterdam, from where cargoes are transported to Britain via P&O Ferries.
Each train consists of 36 huckepack trailers able to carry up to 28 tonnes each. Its journey from Poznan to Rotterdam takes 20 hours.
Photo © Radek Kopras
Following a comprehensive dive inspection overnight in Poole damage was detected in the three jet propulsion buckets of catamaran CONDOR LIBERATION. As a result of these technical issues, Condor Ferries cancelled the sailings between Poole and the Channel Islands until November 6. Condor is implementing a revised schedule in line with published contingency plans to maintain passenger and freight services across its network of routes. Instead CONDOR RAPIDE will operate a revised schedule.
Photo: CONDOR LIBERATION © Condor Ferries
Rederi AB Gotland, a subsidiary of Trojaborg AB, published its interim report for the period 1 January – 31 August 2017 (the full year ends 31 December).
The company has subsidiaries in the hotel business, property management, tanker shipping, ship repair and ferries. The latter operates as Destination Gotland AB between mainland Sweden and the domestic island of Gotland with ro-pax ferries VISBY and GOTLAND, HSC GOTLANDIA and GOTLANDIA II, and ro-ro GUTE.
The current agreement for Gotland traffic with the Swedish Transport Administration extends until January 2027. The company has two LNG ro-paxes on order in China.
Group’s operating profit amounted to SEK 327 million (374).
Profit after financial income and expenses decreased from SEK 382 million to SEK 304 million.
Turnover was SEK 1,653 million (1,528).
As the first ferry company in the Port of Trelleborg, Stena Line will now be connecting up its two ro-pax vessels SKÅNE and MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN to the electricity grid during calls into port.
Stena Line is a pioneer in this field. Cold ironing is now reality in four of Stena Line’s six ports in Sweden. Throughout Stena Line’s route network, 17% of the ports are connected.
“Planning work is under way to enable us to connect vessels in more of our ports. The objective is for 25% of the ports by 2020 and 7% by 2030,” says Stena Line’s CEO Niclas Mårtensson.
Photo © Stena Line
The freight volume handled by the port of Antwerp continues to expand. After nine months the total this year stands at 167.1 million tonnes, an increase of 3.3% compared with the same period last year.
Ro-ro freight is experiencing strong growth this year: so far it is up 10.7% to 3,752,577 tonnes. In particular there have been strong imports of paper carried as ro-ro, up by 250,000 tonnes or 89%.
But in fact both imports and exports of rolling stock have expanded on most trading routes. In the meantime the number of cars handled has risen by 3.4% to 919,793
Photo: VASALAND, SOL Continent Line on the River Scheldt © Mike Louagie