Seajets’ SUPER STAR joins the Hellenic Coastal Line on January 17

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Seajet’s SUPER STAR (former SUPERFERRY II) will be temporarily introduced on the Lavrion-North Aegean line, as from January 17, replacing her larger fleet mate AQUA BLUE, which will be out of service for scheduled repairs.

The veteran has been thoroughly refurbished at Avlis Shipyards (Chalkis) and is expected to serve the Rafina-Andros-Tinos-Mykonos line in the afternoon sailings.

Photo: Spyros Roussos

Sea Lines buys the ropax EUROPEAN SEAWAY from P&O Ferries

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Åland based Sea Lines bought EUROPEAN SEAWAY, writes sjofart.ax.

Sea Lines is the freight company that has been operating successfully on the Black Sea between Turkey and Ukraine for the past ten years. Last summer it sold ship and route to Turkish entrepreneurs.

Since the sale, CEO Joe Lindblom has actively sought new investments. This happened now with the purchase of EUROPEAN SEAWAYS from P&O Ferries, to be renamed SEA ANATOLIA.

The company says it has no firm plans yet. The vessel will get a stern ramp and internal ramps in a Turkish shipyard.

JUTLANDIA SEA to Stena Line

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JUTLANDIA SEA has left the Wallenius SOL fleet and has been repainted in Stena colours. She started on 4 January on the Rotterdam – Immingham route, together with STENA FORERUNNER.

STENA FORERUNNER will later be replaced by JULANDIA SEA’s sister vessel FIONIA SEA.

Wallenius SOL will replace both ships by BOTNIA ENABLER and BALTIC ENABLER, still under construction in China.

Photo: Rob de Visser

Godby Shipping on the path of newbuilt tonnage

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Godby Shipping’s crew magazine FlaskPosten has an interesting editorial by MD Dan Mikkola. Some highlights:

  • Roro freight rates on the rise
  • Roro market positive
  • Godby sold two old ships and bought three younger vessels.
  • The combination of increasingly expensive class renewal docks, installation of ballast water treatment systems and various adaptations to EEXI and CII, plus costs for future emission rights provide strong reasons for investing in newbuildings

Shipyard visits for the DFDS Calais and Dunkerque ships

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COTE DES DUNES moved to Dunkerque on Monday morning for drydock.  She will be followed two weeks later by COTE DES FLANDRES.  They will receive the Lighthouse cafe concept found on COTE D’OPALE and the Dunkerque ships as well as a new look Duty Free shop.

The Dunkerque ships are going to Fayard this year for longer refits of 3 – 4 weeks each.

The remaining areas of the ships not attended to in 2019 or 2020 will receive attention – that is Roadkings and 7 Seas will be refurbished.

There will also be sustainability works to allow the recovery of heat from the funnel to heat the engine oil, removing the need to burn diesel to heat the engine oil.

Mediterranean Sea will become sulphur emission control area

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The European Union, together with countries from around the Mediterranean Sea, have agreed to support the designation of a sulphur emissions control area (SECA) in the Mediterranean basin and as a consequence every ship transiting through the Mediterranean will only be allowed to use fuels containing low sulphur.

The agreement was reached last week in Antalya, Turkey, when the contracting parties of the UN’s Barcelona Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean held the 22nd meeting of the “Conference of the parties”: contracting parties to the convention signed a declaration endorsing a new strategy for 2022 to 2027 to achieve a healthy, clean, sustainable and climate-resilient Mediterranean Sea.

The ministerial meeting closed weeklong discussions, which in addition to the designation of an emission control area and the Medium-Term Strategy 2022-27, agreed on a total of 18 decisions.

DFDS’ newest RoPax is soon on her way to the Baltic Sea

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DFDS took delivery of AURA SEAWAYS [MarineTraffic], which was built at Guangzhou Shipyard International. With 4,500 lane meters, she will by far become the largest DFDS RoPax ferry in terms of cargo capacity.

AURA SEAWAYS fulfils the new design standards of EEDI, and the CO2 emissions per trailer are more than 20 % lower than on the vessels currently trading on the intended routes Karlshamn-Klaipeda and Kiel-Klaipeda.

DFDS Monthly volume report: UK bottlenecks easing slightly

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Freight: total volumes in November 2021 were 5.4% below 2020.

  • The decrease in total volumes compared to 2020 was due to lower volumes on most UK routes as stockbuilding ahead of Brexit boosted volumes on UK routes last year.
  • The negative impact from supply chain bottlenecks, that reduced volumes in Q3 and October, eased during November.
  • North Sea and Channel volumes were in November again above 2019.
  • The Mediterranean business unit continued to carry volumes above 2020 while Baltic Sea volumes were just below 2020 as capacity on one route was reduced from two ferries in 2020 to one ferry in November 2021.
  • Volumes for both the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea business units were above 2019.

Passenger: the total number of passengers in November 2021 was 84.0% above 2020.

  • The increase was largest between Norway and Denmark where travel restrictions to a large extent were abolished in November.
  • The number of passengers on UK routes picked up but in very small numbers due to continued travel restrictions.