2019 Newsletter week 48

Call for Interest for Ferry Companies to Operate Routes with Public Subsidies in Italy

The Italian government said to have completed the first step of the process aimed at renewing subsidy supports for maritime transportation from Italy mainland with Sardinia, Sicily and Tremiti Islands.

As of today, the subsidies paid to CIN Tirrenia are worth EUR 72 million per year but are due to expire next July. The Italian transport ministry already specified the subsidies will be reassigned through a public tender. At the moment it is still unclear whether the call will be launched for all the routes together, per region or per route. The second option seems to be preferable for the Government.

Roberto Morassut, member of the Environment ministry, while answering to a public interpellation, explained that first a market analysis will be done. Then the ferry operators will be called to express their interest at providing regular services.

The most likely companies to be interested are Grimaldi Lines, Moby-Tirrenia CIN, Grandi Navi Veloci and maybe also Grendi Trasporti Marittimi and Corsica Ferries.

Today the routes supported with public subsidies are the following: Genoa-Porto Torres, Civitavecchia-Olbia, Genoa-Olbia, Cagliari-Palermo, Civitavecchia-Cagliari-Arbatax, Naples-Cagliari, Palermo-Naples and Ravenna-Catania.

Grimaldi Group of Italy should be the buyer of the ropax Ciudad de Cadiz, just sold by Trasmediterranea, part of Naviera Armas group, according to some brokers sources.

The price for this 2004 Visentini-built vessel is EUR 39-40 million according to the same sources.

The reason why Grimaldi decided to buy this ropax ship may be linked to the public subsidies for maritime connections between Italy mainland and Sicily and Sardinia islands, set to be launched next summer.

As for the imminent Finnlines order for the Super Star class ferries, Ferry Shipping News understood that Grimaldi is now in advanced negotiation with Avic Weihai Shipyard. Other shortlisted yards were GSI, Jinling, and Hyundai Mipo.

Brittany Ferries is realising the benefits of its drive to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of single use plastics on board its fleet of ferries linking UK, France, Spain and Ireland, by purging almost 5.7 million items of plastic per year.

Direct Ferries’ CEO Sean Cornwell and his team strongly believe the ferry industry has a once in a generation opportunity to redefine ferry travel and the appeal of it to whole new customer segments who before would never have considered taking the ferry. “The world is changing and we in the ferry industry have an opportunity to be on the front foot on this.”

The data (from the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – DEFRA) is compelling and clear cut.  Per kilometre travelled, a foot passenger on a ferry uses 18g of CO2 – considerably less than a coach, bus, rail or plane. A family of 4 in car taking a ferry will use just ~25% of the CO2/person that they would have used had they taken a flight to their destination (43g+18g vs. 254g).

“Many of you compete directly with low-cost airlines and this is a powerful message to tell your potential customers,” concludes Sean Cornwell.

In the fall of 2018, the Oppland county council decided to allocate NOK 65 million for a new ferry and NOK 20 million for onshore infrastructure. The actual ferry Randsfjordferja II is almost 70 years old.

The special thing about the Randsfjord ferry, is that it must first be built, then dismantled and transported over sea and road, and then re-assembled and launched. Randsfjorden is Norway’s fourth-largest lake. The ferry connection is between Tangen and Horn.

After tendering, only one offer was received that qualified. It came from Holland Shipyards Group.

Now, an extra NOK 18.9 million has been allocated after several changes were made based on the original tender specifications.

Electricity provider Glitre Energi nett AS can supply enough energy on the quay for direct charging. This allows to drop the battery bank on land.

In addition, four engines and rudders have been replaced with two less expensive thrusters and better maneuvering capacity.

The yard takes the currency risk, as the contract is in Norwegian kroner.

Source: Oppland Municipality (in Norwegian)

To see the GA of the ferry (Source: Oppland Municipality)