Tillberg Design of Sweden organised on May 7th a webinar about ‘health and safety at sea’. Although mainly aimed at the cruise sector, at Ferry Shipping News we believe there are different elements that can be shared by both the cruise and passenger ferry industries.
Interview with Marios Iliopoulos (SeaJets): “Almost no High-Speed Crafts this Summer”
Mr. Marios Iliopoulos is the owner of SeaJets, the first Greek shipowner to operate high-speed-crafts (HSC) as well as one of the world’s leader HSC operators. Until last year, his crafts connected 280 ports in the Aegean Sea. Therefore, his opinion and information on what we are going to expect this summer is of great importance.
The 50% protocol on ferries’ capacity seems to have provoked reasonable reactions among the Ferry Operators, especially since this is not applied on the airplanes. SEEN is talking about unfair competition while it is still unknown when ferries will eventually start operating on all their routes.
Kristian Durhuus succeeds Jens Ole Hansen, who has been acting as interim CEO of ForSea since February and who will now continue in his position as COO.
Since 2011, Kristian Durhuus has held the position of COO of Copenhagen Airport. Prior to that, he held managing roles within a number of larger organizations including LSG Lufthansa Service and G4S.
Maritime transport of passengers was reopened between Italy mainland and Sicily was reopened this week.
Transport minister, Paola De Micheli, publicly announced that ferry links can restart regularly, also in the Strait of Messina between Reggio Calabria and Villa San Giovanni between 06:00 and 21:00.
Ro-Ro traffic in the Strait will exclusively transit through the port of Messina – Tremestieri in Sicily.
Italy’s transport ministry also said that maritime transport for passengers on the route with Sardinia will remain closed at this moment.
Ferry links between Italy and Spain are set to be restored in the coming days.
Fjord1’s Second Largest Owner Sells To Havila
Perestroika AS, a company controlled by Frederik W. Mohn, has on 13 May 2020 entered into an agreement with Havila Holding AS and Havilafjord
Holding 2 AS to sell all of its shares in Fjord1 ASA, constituting 18.459.849 shares, and representing 18.46% of the issued share capital of Fjord1.
Following completion of the transaction, Perestroika will no longer hold any shares or votes in the Company.
Perestroika was the second largest shareholder f Fjord1, after Havilafjord AS. Perestrika is a company from Frederik W. Mohn, one of Norway’s richest people.
Havila shipowner Per Sævik is now by far the largest owner of Fjord1.
The decision by the Italian government to potentially extend the EUR 72 million of subsidies to Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione (part of Moby group) until 31 July 2021, but probably even beyond, was not appreciated by several ro-ro and ferry operators in Italy.
One of them Antonio Musso, CEO of Grendi Trasporti Marittimi, said to the local media Port News: “The 12-month extension of the subsidies to Tirrenia-Cin is nonsense and devastating for the economic equilibrium of the maritime transport market between Italy mainland and Sardinia”. He added: “Today the essential links to and from the major islands are guaranteed by several private operators on all the routes. I hope that the European Commission will intervene on the subject, otherwise we will do it: there are enough elements to oppose a contribution that clearly distorts competition”. Thus, Grendi seems to be ready to take the case to the Italian Antitrust Authority or to the Administrative Regional Court of Lazio.
Generally speaking, also Emanuele Grimaldi recently said he would react to any form of public support to unhealthy ferry companies, which may distort competition.
The British government has signed agreements with 6 operators to provide up to £35 million to help ensure there is enough freight capacity to prevent disruption to the flow of goods.
The decision has been made to protect 16 of the most important routes covering the Channel, the Short Strait, the North Sea and routes between Great Britain and Northern Ireland which were previously at risk of closure due to a drop in demand, as a result of coronavirus.
They will now be designated as Public Service Obligation routes for a period of up to 9 weeks.
“This is a tough but necessary decision for the company to survive the corona crisis,” said Tallink Silja AB’s MD Marcus Risberg.
He urges the Swedish government to act quickly.
In addition to the negative effect of the missing voyages, due to the virus, the company has also been hit hard by the fact that the shipping support that is normally paid, and is absolutely crucial for the Swedish shipping industry, has now been withdrawn when the vessels are not in traffic.
“We have for a long time argued for the government that our business does not work without the maritime support during this extremely difficult time. We hope that the Government and Parliament understand the seriousness and speed of a temporary change in the law on maritime support so that we do can retain the remaining staff, says Marcus Risberg.
Tilbury2’s New RoRo Terminal Completes Successful Ship Trials
Great-Britain’s newest and largest unaccompanied ro-ro terminal at Tilbury2 took a step closer to opening with the successful completion of ship trials at the weekend.
P&O’s BORE SONG and NORSTREAM arrived at the new ro-ro terminal on the Thames on Sunday 17 May where the port team carried out a full test of the marine facilities including manoeuvring and tying up the ship to test the berth; lowering the ship’s ferry ramp to test the pontoon facilities; and carrying out a full risk assessment. The ship trial was deemed a success with a smooth execution of all the test points being achieved.
The ferry terminal, which is due to open next week (week 22), has a capacity of 500,000 units and will operate in partnership between the port and P&O Ferries importing and exporting containers and trailers with food, drink, medicines and other vital supplies to-and-from Europe
