After trading for five years on various routes in the P&O network, Godby Shipping’s roro ferry MISTRAL [external link: Godby Shipping] was redelivered and subsequently long-term chartered to Balearia.
She will be employed on the Huelva-Tenerife-Las Palmas service for Canary Bridge Seaways, a joint venture between Fred Olsen and Balearia.
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After a six-month period, FRS has decided not to extent the charter of the A-SHIPS Management’s GOLDEN BRIDGE.
The ship will soon return back to Greece. She will be temporarily replaced by Transmediterranean’s VRONSKIY on the Motril – Melilla line.
The Japanese-build vessel was chartered to FRS Iberia on April 2019 and entered service on the Motril – Melilla run on June 2019, after having completed successfully all the proper inspections.
On 30 December 2019, Destination Gotland signed the papers to become the owner of the second LNG-ferry built at the Chinese GSI yard. She’s the sister of VISBORG.
Stable Turnover for Wasaline Despite less Sailings
The 2019 volumes were greatly affected by a 3-week absence of ferry WASA EXPRESS, and the Finnish postal strike.
This meant only 826 departures, compared to 850 in 2018.
Stable €19.6 million turnover
In its 2019 Q4 and December statistics, Tallink Grupp sees the following trends:
The Italian Antitrust authority announced this week the decision to postpone the recalculation of the fine to Moby for the abuse of dominant position on the maritime links between the country’s mainland and Sardinia region.
In March 2018 the authority fined Moby and Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione (the former Tirrenia) with a sanction of €29 million for having misused their dominant position in three different routes of maritime transportation of goods. The investigation originated from the complaints of two logistics compagnie (Trans Isole and Nuova Logistica Lucianu), and of a maritime transportation company (Grimaldi Euromed), subsequently joined by the intervener in the proceedings Grendi Trasporti Marittimi.
In May last year the administrative court in Rome confirmed the sentence but asked for the fine to be recalculated while Moby group appealed the decision.
Now the Italian Antitrust Authority decided to wait until the delivery of the next sentence before (possibly) re-calculating the fine.
Delegation of Public Service for Secondary Corsican Ports Might Have to Be Revised
For the second time, the tender procedure for the ports of Porto-Vecchio and Propriano will probably be declared unsuccessful. The reason is the growing success of these smaller ports, which changes the framework for the DSP.
After having lost the main routes, La Meridionale was able to operate on Marseille – Propriano, and on Marseille Porto-Vecchio (the latter with Corsica Linea).
The fear is now that La Meridionale loses these secondary routes too.
Note from Ferry Shipping News: there are more questions than facts in this article. We’ll have to find out what the President of the Executive Board intends to propose at the next session of the Assembly of Corsica, on January 9 and 10. An emergency procedure will have to be started for a DSP until the end of this year.
Ferry services to and from Karlshamn are secured for the future. At least for the next ten years. That is the meaning of a new agreement with DFDS.
