Jan 12
1

P&O Ferries strengthens North Sea presence with new London – Rotterdam freight route

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

P&O Ferries will open a new RoRo freight route in the North Sea, between London (Tilbury 2) and Rotterdam (Europoort), starting in March 2024.

This service will complement P&O Ferries’ existing Zeebrugge to London route together with strengthening its rail-connected hub in Rotterdam.

Peter Hebblethwaite, P&O Ferries’ CEO: “The opening of our new route between London and Rotterdam gives P&O Ferries a unique network in the North Sea. We now have five hubs: Hull, Teesport, Tilbury, Zeebrugge and Europoort, connecting the North East and South East of England with the Continent. We will offer our freight customers the earliest arrival on the Thames from Rotterdam, along with swift access to the M25 and terminal rail connections.”

“The opening of the London – Rotterdam route will mark another significant step in our business transformation and further contribute to the end-to-end logistics service offered by our parent company, DP World.”

The route will be served by the Dutch-flagged P&O Ferries vessel NORBANK, which until recently was serving on the Irish Sea, with a capacity of 125 freight units.

Jan 12
0

Port of Hirtshals is set to become bigger: Billion-DKK port expansion is now open for tender

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

Port of Hirtshals is set to expand, and in this regard, a billion-DKK EU tender has just been announced for the construction work of the expansion with a total budget of around DKK 1 billion. The port is to be expanded partly to improve the navigation conditions, allowing larger ships to dock at the port in harsher weather conditions than is currently the case, and partly to establish marshalling and industrial areas on the port premises.

Port of Hirtshals expects to submit the final bid for approval to the Hjørring City Council no later than the fall of 2024.

Jan 12
0

An excellent year for Port of Tallinn

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

In 2023, 8 million passengers and 13 million tonnes of cargo passed through the harbours of Port of Tallinn. The annual number of passengers increased by 13%, or 900,000 passengers, recovering from the movement restrictions related to the pandemic.

The number of passengers between the Estonian mainland and the main islands, operated by Port of Tallinn’s subsidiary TS Laevad OÜ increased by 5%. In 2023, people travelled to the Estonian islands with the ferries more than ever, the number of trips, passengers and transported vehicles increased reaching an all-time record.

Read more about the operational volumes for 2023 full year
Jan 12
0

A challenging year for Port of Antwerp-Bruges – Ireland traffic up

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

Geopolitical tensions and slowing global economic growth are driving down industrial production and trade flows. As a result, total throughput, which was 271 million tonnes of cargo in 2023, is down 5.5% from the previous year.

Despite this difficult context, thanks to the added value of the merger, the market share of the container segment increased compared to the other ports in the Hamburg – Le Havre range.

To ensure its strategic role as a world port in the future, sustainable growth remains a priority and a major investment programme is foreseen for the next 10 years.

Total roll-on/roll-off traffic is holding up relatively well with a slight decrease of 2.1%. Transport equipment troughput (in units) is up thanks to an increase in the throughput of new cars. In 2023, 3.56 million new cars were handled, an annualised growth of 9.0%. Throughput of unaccompanied cargo (excluding containers) carried on RoRo vessels is also down slightly (-1.5%). More than half of these flows are related to the UK and are down (-4.9%), while traffic related to Ireland is up sharply (+17.9%), while Scandinavia traffic is holding up.

Click on graph to access the newsroom

Jan 12
0

Fred. Olsen Express and Baleària add second ship to the Canary Islands route

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

As of 13 January 2024, RoPax SICILIA will be added and will serve alongside RoPax MARIE CURIE.

The connection goes from two to three weekly trips from each port, both for cargo and passenger transport.

The service will have departures from Tenerife and Gran Canaria on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Meanwhile, from Huelva these routes will be made on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Jan 12
0

Fjord1 and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration have signed a contract for the operation of the national road ferry connection E39 Lavik-Oppedal.

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

Fjord1 will operate the Lavik-Oppedal connection with four vessels from 2026 to 2034 (with the possibility of extension for up to three years).

Lavik – Oppedal is the ninth largest ferry connection in the country with 1.2 million car units in 2022.

The contract involves the development of fully automated solutions for all four ferries from 2027 onwards. The contract describes 23 different functions to be automated, and the sum of these functions means that the ferries will carry out route production by themselves. In addition, a control centre must be established on land, for monitoring and the possibility of remote control of the ferries.

Photo: Managing Director Fjord1, Dagfinn Neteland and director of ferries in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Dag Hole. Photo: Fjord1

Jan 12
0

Ragusa Express ready to start sailing on the Malta – Sicily route

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

Ragusa Express is the newly built company that is on the verge of starting a high-speed ferry service linking Malta (La Valletta) with Sicily (Marina di Ragusa) in Southern Italy. The catamaran, renamed SAN GIORGIO, left Valletta this Wednesday to conduct some final berthing tests in Ragusa before entering full service in the near future.

The catamaran service to Marina di Ragusa is set to be launched before next summer after a Maltese group of investors, led by Paul Gauci of Pama and Pavi fame, took over ownership of the marina and the port area. The tests were positive, and the owners have been given the green light to start daily catamaran service between the two islands.

The vessel can carry up to 400 passengers and 18 vehicles.

Establishing a catamaran link between Malta and Marina di Ragusa gained great momentum following the news in October 2023 that Ponte Ferries had suspended its catamaran service between Valletta and Pozzallo, a year after launching the route to rival the long-established Virtu’ Ferries.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/portoturisticomarinadiragusa

Jan 12
0

Three modern and eco-friendly RoRo vessels for Airbus

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

Deltamarin is collaborating with Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA) and Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group (WSIG) to design eco-friendly vessels for Airbus subassembly transportation. These ships aim to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030. LDA is modernizing its entire chartered vessel fleet for Airbus, with Deltamarin handling the design. The vessels will be powered by Flettner rotors and dual-fuel engines, minimizing their environmental impact and cutting annual CO2 emissions from 68,000 to 33,000 tonnes by 2030.

Jan 12
0

Record-breaking passenger volumes for Wasaline in 2023

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

Wasaline announced excellent results for 2023.

+4.4% passengers

+14.3% cars

+11.6% buses

-5.9% cargo units, mostly due to the ending of traffic to and from Russia. The volume of imported paper has decreased due to lower demand. Export from Finland has remained approximately at the same level.

Turnover for Wasaline stayed the same compared to 2022.

Wasaline expects the first two quarters of 2024 to be difficult for both passenger and freight services due to the current economic downturn.

The shipping company is closely monitoring the (heavy) ice conditions in the Kvarken strait and is prepared to reduce the frequency of departures if necessary.

Jan 12
0

DFDS December volumes: freight 2% lower, passengers 8% higher

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

Ferry – freight:

  • Total volumes in December 2023 were 2.4% below 2022.
  • North Sea volumes were below 2022 due to volume decrease between the UK and the Netherlands while all other routes were above 2022.
  • Mediterranean volumes were below 2022 following lower volumes between Istanbul and Italy due to primarily timing differences in automotive manufacturing. All other routes were above 2022.
  • Channel volumes continued to be above 2022 driven by the Dover Strait routes.
  • Baltic Sea volumes were below 2022 due to a lower activity level in Sweden and the Baltic countries.
  • In 2023, the total transported freight lane metres decreased 7.9% to 38.4m from 41.7m in 2022. The decrease was 4.2% adjusted for Channel.

Ferry – passenger:

  • The number of passengers in December increased 8.1% following more Channel passengers as well a higher number of passengers on the routes connecting Norway-Denmark and UK-Netherlands.
  • The number of cars increased 4.0%.
  • In 2023, the total number of passengers increased 19.4% to 4.5m from 3.8m in 2022.