The ferry part of the Stena Group is performing well with the EBITDA, “continuing on historical high levels across the regions and markets with continued increased volumes both on freight and travel segments, offset by increased bunker costs and a challenging North Sea Market.”
The CMA CGM Group is going to merge its subsidiaries MacAndrews and OPDR to strengthen its multimodal offer in Europe. The name will be MacAndrews and the headquarters will be located in Hamburg.
MacAndrews, acquired by CMA CGM in 2002, offers rail, land and maritime transport services and is a specialist in container transport on short-sea routes as well as multimodal solutions. MacAndrews connects Great Britain, the Iberian Peninsula and Poland.
OPDR, acquired by the CMA CGM Group in 2015, is an expert in intra-European short-sea transport and logistics. OPDR mainly covers Central Europe, Spain (including the Canary Islands), Portugal and Morocco. OPDR operates six container feeders and two Con-Ro’s.
Norwegian companies Boreal and Oma Baatbyggeri have signed an agreement for the construction of a new electrically operated ferry.
The ferry will be in operation in Hordaland (Bergen area) by January 2020, and will serve the Kinsarvik-Utne route.
The ferry contract comprises the ferry crossings Kvanndal–Utne, Kinsarvik–Utne and Skånevik–Matre–Utåker and has a duration of 9 years with an option for one further year.
The new ferry is 42m long, and will carry 80 passengers and 16 cars (or 2 semi-trailer trucks). The ferry will be built in aluminium.
Photo: OMA
Ships have for some time reported their positions through AIS transponders but a team from DNV GL have cleaned the data and then developed an algorithm that accurately predicts arrivals at ports: Veracity.
Norwegian paint manufacturer Jotun joined the Veracity pilot program and it became apparent that an early approximation for vessels future port visits could provide value to Jotun’s supply chain. A more comprehensive understanding of the movements of the global fleet allows Jotun to optimize their stock and delivery planning.
Photo: DNV GL
The first parts of the mega-block of the new DFDS 6,700 lane meter ro-ros are now visible in the building dock in Jinling, says DFDS. Until March the construction will be done in a temporary position because of another vessel. Once this vessel is launched, the mega-block will then be relocated to the correct position in the dock and the rest of the vessel erected.
DFDS has ordered four large ro-ro ships to service freight customers across the North Sea from 2019 and 2020.
The world’s first fully electric passenger and car ferry that can operate at record breaking distances of up to 22 nautical miles is in its final stage of construction.
The E-ferry hull arrived in Søby, Denmark on October 1. Since then, everyone has been working around the clock to install all the component, cables and systems that are necessary for the E-ferry to run on pure battery power.
Alongside the work being done on the E-ferry itself, work has also been done on the onshore facilities in Søby, where the E-ferry will be charged.
As expected the fast ferry has been redelivered to Irish Continental Group at the end of November as per the terms of the charter agreement with Sealift LLC. The Austal catamaran had been on charter in Asia since its acquisition on 1 June 2016.
In a stock exchange release, ICG says that the vessel will be refurbished to bring it up to Irish Ferries passenger service standards. That doesn’t mean automatically that the WESTPAC EXPRESS will be used on the Irish Sea instead of the JONATHAN SWIFT. She might be chartered out.
JONATHAN SWIFT is faster but WESTPAC EXPRESS is larger.
To be followed.
Tinder for transport
For each truck on the road, one is driving empty. And in average, only 57% of the freight capacity of lorries is used. With these striking figures, awareness rises. Something has to be done to make transport more efficient, in order to reach the goals of the reduction of emissions, to keep companies profitable and efficient, and to tackle the issues of an ever growing traffic congestion.
At the end of November a congress about this subject was organised by the Vlerick School of Economics and the University of Leuven (Belgium).
Powered by big data and algorithms certain tools will calculate the best transport routes and combinations. There is already one Dutch startup –Quicargo– that calls itself the Uber for the transport sector.
Source: Flemish newspaper De Standaard, 2 December 2017 – Photo: Mike Louagie
“Quotidien du Tourisme” writes that Brittany Ferries has strengthened its offer as a tour operator specialised in the UK and Ireland, with some new packages for French customers
Photo: Mike Louagie
Ro-pax NORMAN ATLANTIC took fire in December 2014. The wreck was towed to Bari for investigations and has been there ever since. Because the experts have done their work the several stakeholders have asked the Court to release the ship from her evidential seizure. The ship is moored next to the cruise and ferry terminal, not a pretty sight.
Source: Corriere del Mezzogiorno – Photo: Italian Navy
