We expect within this year to see the results of our investments”
Achille Onorato, CEO Moby Group
This week our Italian correspondent, Nicola Capuzzo, interviewed Achille Onorato, CEO of Moby Group.
ForSea Foresees the Future
November last year saw the official introduction of two fully-battery-operated ferries on the Helsingborg – Helsingør route. AURORA and TYCHO BRAHE have been rebuilt to run on electricity. The company has also been rebranded into For Sea.
Time for an interview.
Moby Enters Bunkering And Automotive Logistics Business, While Selling Ro-Ro HARTMUT PUSCHMANN
In 2019 Moby will enter a pair of new business segments, different from the usual maritime transport of cars and passengers.
In a letter sent to the employees at the end of December, the chief executive officer Achille Onorato (photo) revealed that the group will soon be active in the field of bunkering and in the automotive logistics.
“This year we have invested in terminal operators, shipping agencies and we are going to do the same also in the bunkering business” Onorato revealed in his letter, further adding: “In a very short period of time we are going to offer bunker services. We at Moby should all keep in mind that the price of the fuel is the main enemy in our business”.
Furthermore, the CEO also added that the company he heads “is to enter a new business segment represented by automotive logistics” not giving more details.
Some sources familiar with the matter say that Moby recently recruited a person from the ‘Civitavecchia port workers company’ specifically skilled in new vehicle handling activity ashore.
Last but not least, the former president of the Sardinia region, Mauro Pili, publicly informed that Moby have sold the ro-ro vessel HARTMUT PUSCHMANN to the Polish company Unity Line for €17m. The Milan-based group denied this rumour while several ship brokers defined the news as “very likely”.
The popularity of route travel between Helsinki and Tallinn is on the rise. Viking Line is altering the timetables of VIKING XPRS to better correspond to the growing demand.
Additional departures will be added to the Friday and Sunday timetables as from 5 April.
Viking XPRS will make three trips per day on the Helsinki – Tallinn route on Fridays and Sundays, the most popular days.
The demand for additional departures is particularly high from Finland to Estonia, where (tourism) passengers are increasingly looking to travel to Tallinn and Estonia.
The British Government has entered into three contracts with ferry operators to provide additional ferry capacity and services into the UK as part of no deal EU Exit contingency planning (as announced last week).
In this update the secretary of transport gives more background information about what, why and how.
DFDS has given more details about the deal with the British Government in case of a hard Brexit.
DFDS agreed to provide additional capacity on Immingham – Cuxhaven, Immingham – Rotterdam, and Felixstowe – Rotterdam.
Following the close down of the maritime link directly operated between Turkey (Istanbul) and Italy (Trieste), Alternative Taşımacılık A.Ş. has decided to use its ro-ro ships PAQIZE, QEZBAN, HATCHE and MELEQ by chartering or selling them to different international operators.
The general manager of the Turkish shipping firm, Hakan Yılmaz, stated that they took this decision to ensure the continued growth of the group companies in a stronger and more secure way. “We had to take this decision to eliminate the imbalance in our cash flow for which we couldn’t find the desired solution, mostly due to the unfavourable economic conditions in our country that appeared after we had to finance the Yalova port investment ourselves” Yılmaz said.
The other two vessels in fleet, AYSHE and FADIQ, are currently operated on charter and will continued be deployed on the link between Çeşme in Turkey and Sète in France.
As for the future intentions regarding the ro-ro terminal controlled in the port of Trieste through the company Europe Multipurpose Terminal, Alternative’s commercial director Esber Horasan commented as follows: “In our main end to end logistics business we will continue investing more in the intermodal business. Terminals are part of this development for railway connections, so in the short term plans we do not have plan to dismiss it. We are receiving cooperation and purchase offers for our terminals but there are no sales negotiation ongoing”.
Stena Line Inaugurates Onshore Power Supply In Oslo
Stena Line is the first ferry company to connect to the onshore power supply connection in the Port of Oslo. STENA SAGA will now be connecting to the electricity grid during calls into port.
Stena has been working with onshore power supply connections since 1989 and is a pioneer within this area. With STENA SAGA, 14 of Stena Lines’ 38 vessels can now connect to green electricity when in port.
The ‘cold ironing’ is expected to result in a saving of just over 1,400 tonnes of fuel per year.
P&O Ferrymasters will launch of new intermodal services from the Turkish ports of Pendik, Ambarli and Mersin to the Free Port of Trieste, with onward connections to its European intermodal network.
The new services – with departures six times a week in both directions with DFDS ships – will connect with rail links from the port of Trieste to P&O Ferries’ continental hubs at Rotterdam and Zeebrugge, giving highly competitive transit times of less than a week between Turkey and Europe’s principal logistics hubs.
The number of passengers traveling with Viking Line in 2018 was 6,411,537, a bit lower than previous year (6,881,149). In 2017 Viking Line chartered high-speed ferry VIKING FSTR, creating more capacity. In 2018 Viking Line had 38% fewer departures on the route.
The number of freight units was 128,549 (127,668) and the number of passenger cars 704,799 (762,253).
