BC Ferries has no plans to go electric with its ships anytime soon despite the worldwide movement toward greener battery-powered ferries using technology made in British Columbia by Corvus.
Photo: VOLCAN DE TIJARAFE © Naviera Armas
Naviera Armas are to operate the Canary Islands – Madeira route using the VOLCAN DE TIJARAFE. Service starts on 2 July 2018 and ends in September.
The operations will be managed by the insular public company ENM (Empresa de Navegação Madeirense)
Photo: VOLCAN DE TIJARAFE © Naviera Armas
The Vigo-based shipyard Hijos de J. Barreras has announced that it will finalise the contract for three ferries this summer.Two are for Norwegian Havila Kystlink, as reported last week.It appears Naviera Armas will confirm their order on 20 June.
- P&O Ferries’ PRIDE OF KENT returned to service on Calais – Dover after over five months out of service after her grounding.
- Ro-pax EUROFERRY CORFU has arrived at Marseille to begin her charter to Corsica Linea. She will be renamed VIZZAVONA.
- Genoa is grappling with space. The Spinelli group, the company managing the terminal at which the Tirrenia ships operate, rang the alarm bell by saying that the Malta Line could be terminated. Reason: lack of space, and because ofthe slow moving of cargo.
- Africa Morocco Link (AML) will charter GALAXY from European Seaways for the route Algeciras – Tanger Med.
- TT Line’s PETER PAN is soon going to re-enter service after having been at the yard in Bremerhaven for a lengthening operation.
Brittany Ferries Confirms Order For Second Stena E-Flexer
Brittany Ferries has confirmed it is going to have a second Stena E-Flex ro-pax, in order to meet increasing demand for travel on services from Britain to Spain (Santander and Bilbao).
The first ro-pax one is now expected in 2021.
Based in Portsmouth, they will follow the launch of Flensburg-built HONFLEUR in 2019, the first cross-channel ferry to be powered by LNG.
In the last ten years, the number of passengers travelling by ferry to Spain has grown by around 80%, to more than 331,000 (and 150,000 cars). By adding more freight capacity, the company is confident that it can also grow the 40,000 freight units it carries annually.
The interior design for the Brittany Ferries ships will be done in cooperation with an unconfirmed Spanish design office, with a “Green Spain” theme, linked to the destination.
The first vessel will be LNG-ready, the second LNG-powered.
Brittany Ferries explicitly confirmed the vessels will be flying the French flag, and will be manned by French crew. Recently the company was blamed for chartering a Cyprus-flagged vessel.
Stena did it again
The vessels are being chartered from Stena RoRo, with an option to buy after five years.
The investment is a typical Stena investment. In the past the Swedish shipping company has built several very successful series of ferries, which have been chartered out to other operators. A typical example is the series of ro-paxes built by Hyundai in the seventies.
Stena RoRo was able to secure building slots at the Avic Weihai shipyard in China, when the time was right to order.
Overview
Stena ordered four units, with an option for another four.
First 4:
3 units for Stena Line (Stena press release 5 April 2016)
1st unit for Brittany Ferries, 5-year bareboat charter with purchase option (Source: Brittany Ferries press release)
Two declared options:
DFDS, 10-year bareboat charter (Source: press release Stena)
2nd unit for Brittany Ferries, 5-year bareboat charter with purchase option (press release by email).
Two more options:
- Some data for the Brittany Ferries units
- Length 214.5m
- Gross tonnage 42,400
- Passengers 1,000
- Cabins 300 for passengers and 36 for truck drivers
- Lane meters 3,100
Our policy is to avoid speculations and mistakes. Last week, by misinterpreting a French article I (mis)understood Port of Marseille has a new CEO. Wrong. Mrs Christine Cabau Woehrel, has been CEO since several years and she still is. Mea culpa!
Higher Taxes Erode Fjord1’s First Quarter
In the first quarter Fjord1 had a total turnover of NOK 711 million, which is up compared to last year’s Q1 (NOK 628 million).
Earnings before taxes totalled 138.5 million, a slight increase. (NOK 133 million).
The result after tax is NOK 106.7 million, approximately 25 million less than last year, due to a higher tax bill.
AS Tallink Grupp has announced to the Tallinn Stock Exchange that it plans to undertake a secondary listing of the Company’s shares on the Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange. The effective date for listing is estimated to be early autumn 2018.
Tallink Grupp’s shares will also continue to be listed on the Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange.
“By listing shares on the Helsinki Stock Exchange we create additional opportunities for investors to make transactions with Tallink Grupp’s shares and enable people in Finland once again to contribute to the activities of the historic brand Silja Line as well as the wider Tallink Grupp,“ CEO Paavo Nõgene said.
Scandlines Helsingborg-Helsingör made progress in Q1 in terms of transferred cars, ensuring the route an increased share of car traffic on the Öresund.
The expansion of ferry HAMLETs timetable from 1 December 2017 entailed greater capacity, which was almost fully utilized in Q1 already.
- Cars 239,000 (235,000) + 2%
- Trucks 111,000 (107,000) +4%
- Passengers 1.29 million (1.28 million)
In its Q1 Interim Report, Tallink Grupp AS obviously experiences the same though competition as Viking Line, especially on the routes between Finland and Sweden. The competition has an influence on the ticket price.
The total number of passengers has declined 0,5%, only due to the decrease on Finland – Sweden (-9.9%). This route is also having lower figures for cargo (-15.6%) and cars (-16.3%). All other routes are seeing increases.
- Revenue €184.2 million (€191.5 million) -3.9%
- Gross profit €13.7 million (€14.09 million) -7.8%
- EBITDA €4.2 million (€5.3 million) -20.3%