DFDS acquires the German rail operator company primeRail.
The acquisition strengthens DFDS’ rail offerings and is “a testament to DFDS’ ambition to find sustainable ways to continue providing reliable and valuable services.”
The acquisition also marks the launch of a new Rail business area in DFDS.
On April 17, 2022 Aegean Cargo Management’s roro AYSHE left Greece, following a 2-year laid up at Perama.
The large Japanese-built vessel is the fastest roro in the world (30 knots) and was chartered to the Turkish Ecol from 2014 to 2019 for service on the Turkey – France (Sète) line.
In May 2019, the charter was ended and the ship returned to Greece and offered for sale. She remained at Perama repair zone until April 2022, where she was transferred to Oristars Shipping Co Ltd.
The ship flew the flag of Panama and was sent to China for service between China and Japan. The vessel is currently at the port of Longyan awaiting refit and repairs.
On April 12, 2022, Nel Lines’ flagship THEOFILOS (ex NILS HOLGERSSON, ABEL TASMAN, POLLUX) left her anchorage to be scrapped in Aliaga (Turkey).
She was laid up at the port of Piraeus since Nel Lines’ collapse (2013).
Three attempts were made to sell her. At the second attempt in October 2019, she was sold to Anen Lines, which saved her from the scrapyard at the last minute.
The ship had a very interesting career:
1975 Built in Germany for TT-Line as the NILS HOLGERSSON, Travemünde-Trelleborg.
1985 ABEL TASMAN, Transport Tasmania (TT-Line) Melbourne-Devonport.
1994 POLLUX, Ventouris Ferries
1995 THEOFILOS, Nel Lines, Piraeus-Chios-Lesvos-Thessaloniki
Photo: voyagair.shipspotting (Christos Chatzaras)
We are happy to present a new module – Ship Position complementing our offer for IPTV solutions for the maritime industry. Now you can monitor the current position of the vessel to be in control of your movement.
Nervon Ship Position module will mainly benefit guests on small sea ships and river cruises. The solution can be tailored and adjusted to existing infrastructure without major investment.
This service could be delivered to any vessel in any part of the world. Minimum Internet connection is required to capture the data and present vessel position data in the format as a separate channel.
Other exciting features are:
• Visualization of the vessel movements on a digital map
• The behaviour of the ship during the route
• Insights on the arrival and departure time of vessels
• Information about all nearby cities during the voyage
• Speed and draught graphic
• Route prediction
The first ship position feature was recently implemented on request for Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T.), the leader in a small ship cruising, offering their guests a tailored onboard experience.
The feature is now implemented on their small ships Arethusa, Artemis, and Athena cruising in the Aegean and the Adriatic seas. Now O.A.T. travellers on these small ships can enjoy the real-time updates of vessel position data, ship details, voyage information, arrival times, and even more. All the ships in their fleet can navigate narrow passageways and off-the-beaten-path ports, so no matter where travellers choose to travel with O.A.T., they can expect to feel fully immersed.
Know where you are in the world. Let there be content at every point of your journey!
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has rejected the application for a exemption in order to insure HAVILA CAPELLA.
Earlier this Ministry had granted Havila Kystruten a exemption from the (Russian) sanctions regulations to operate HAVILA CAPELLA for 6 months.
The exemption did not entail any right to insure the ship and on Monday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the shipping company’s application to take out insurance on the grounds that being able to take out insurance in itself would mean that a property is made available to the registered owner.
Are you planning a new ferry build? If the answer is yes, then you would probably want to optimise your costs by focusing on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) instead of kW-power. Choosing the propulsion unit based mainly on Capex, for example, will most likely increase costs in the long run. In this article Steerprop presents a case study, showing that a ferry owner can save more than two million euros over a 15-year period by concentrating on the TCO.
Prosecutors from the “Procura della Repubblica” of Cagliari asked six and four years of detention respectively for Franco Del Giudice and his son Enzo Giorgio, owners of the ferry company Delcomar, for the case of the ships deployed on the short cabotage around Sardinia non respecting the requested standards reported in the public procedure for the maritime continuity.
Some of the contested factors are linked with the speed, the equipment, and the safety standard of the vessels.
A public service contract was awarded to Delcomar in 2016 for up to nine years, for more than EUR 100 million. Two vessels were deployed for that on the routes Carloforte-Portovesme and Carloforte-Calasetta.
Italy’s finance police arrested two ferries and seized a sum exceeding EUR 64 million from the ferry company Delcomar in the recent past for the case.
What will the “new Moby” be like after the debt-restructuring plan? The answer to this question can be found into the two plans that Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione and Moby have filed on 31 March at the Court of Milan.
In the documents is written that the capital increase from Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. will be “up to EUR 81 million” for a minority stake (25%) in the group. Confirmed is also that the State-owned ‘bad company’ Tirrenia in Amministrazione Straordinaria (born when Tirrenia was sold to Moby in 2012) will be paid EUR 82 million for its credit which is worth EUR 180 million.
Moby also specifies that with the ‘one shot’ payment to Tirrenia in A.S. the two ferries SHARDEN and RAFFAELE RUBATTINO will not be transferred but remain in the group’s fleet.
A new company called ShipCo and controlled by the creditors (mainly banks and bond holders) will own the remaining fleet of ropax units while the harbour tug division is soon to be sold to the highest bidder.
Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione (Tirrenia) will be merged into Moby and the sum put on the table from Aponte to rescue the ‘blue whale’ group “exceed and replace” the EUR 6 million that Onorato Armatori intended to inject in Moby.
The ‘concordato’ procedure under the bankruptcy law at the Court of Milan is intended to receive the final green light and to be completed before the end of 2022; instead the debt restructuring plan will last for the next three years (up to 2025).
Lenders and bondholders “will see their credits satisfied to the extent of 63.6% plus interest at 3% through the cash flows generated” by the Moby operating company (OpCo) and the company that owns the ferries (ShipCo). OpCo “will pay time charter rates in favor of the ShipCo for a total of EUR 55.6 million. Finally – it is also reported in the plan – it will proceed to the repurchase of the ships in 2025 through a refinancing plan which will be based on a price of EUR 220 million for a company expected to generate, at that date, an EBITDA of approximately EUR 100 million”.
The ShipCo “will sell at the end of 2022 both the ships JANAS and BITHIA for EUR 65 million and in 2023 the ferry ATHARA for EUR 37 million”.
Creditors will also be guaranteed in case of non-performing of the plan through the “possibility of selling the ships on the market and exercising the guarantees obtained, including the pledge of 75% of the shares of OpCo (Moby) held by Onorato Armatori”.
The Vincenzo Onorato-controlled ferry group will also dismiss “assets non-core and not functional to the industrial plan, including in particular: the tugboat division (valued EUR 50 million in 2022), the ships MOBY CORSE (2.9 million), MOBY ZAZA (4.8 million) and GIUSEPPE SA (2 million in 2022), the real estate properties in Piazza San Babila in Milan (4.8 million) and in Olbia (1.3 million)”. The roro GIUSEPPE SA has already been sold for EUR 4.6 million.
As for the two new ferries ordered and under construction at the Chinese shipyard GSI of Guangzhou, scheduled for delivery in 2022 and 2023, in the ‘rescue plan’ there is no longer any mention about the fact that these contracts (bareboat leasing with ICBC and bare boat charter back) will be transferred within the perimeter of Moby (ShipCo) transferring them from the company Fratelli Onorato Armatori which signed the order.
Moby just specified to Ferry Shipping News that both the ferries MOBY FANTASY and MOBY LEGACY “will be operating on the Livorno – Olbia from 2023 as already announced”.
Scandro Holding Ltd is the winning bidder (EUR 15.59 million) for the much-expected Greece-Cyprus line.
The Cypriot government has committed to funding the connection with EUR 5,5 million per year for a period of three years and a total of EUR 16,5 million.
Photo: Arab Ship Management
On 29 April 2022, Aegean Speed Lines announced [press release] the suspension of its activities on the Piraeus-Serifos-Sifnos -Milos line after 17 years of continues presence in the Hellenic Coastal Shipping.
Its only vessel, HSC SPEEDRUNNER III, has been sold to SeaJets, who already owns former HSC SPEEDRUNNER IV.
The Eugenides Group (Aegean Speed Lines) says “it intends to continue its presence in coastal shipping.”
