Marco Palmu has been appointed Head of Passenger Services as of 1 September 2021. He will join Finnlines Group’s Board of Management and will report to Emanuele Grimaldi, President and CEO, Finnlines Plc.
Marco Palmu joins Finnlines from Tallink Silja Oy, where he has most recently worked as Commercial Director. He has an extensive background from shipping and passenger business. [LinkedIn]
Construction of the first of the two new Superstar ro-pax vessels has begun. The traditional steel cutting ceremony of FINNSIRIUS was held at the China Merchants Jinling Shipyard (Weihai) in China on 1 June 2021.
The environmentally friendly ropax vessels will bring innovative solutions to Finnlines’ services and will enhance the customer experience to a new level.
With space for 1,100 passengers and a deck capacity of 5,100 lane metres, the 235-metre long Superstar ropax vessels will be Finnlines’ largest passenger-freight vessels.
Finnlines has published its Annual Report for 2020 at www.finnlines.com/annualreport2020.
Cost saving plan:
At the end of Q1 Finnlines reacted promptly to the first signs of the widespread economic fallout of the ongoing crisis and initiated a cost saving plan to mitigate the Covid-19 impact.
“As a result, we maintained a feasible profitability throughout the latter part of the year and the result for the reporting period was EUR 69.7 (98.3) million, which we are very proud of,” says Emanuele Grimaldi, President and CEO.
Five new vessels / First expected in November.
No financial aid: “Regardless of our pivotal supply role, green and sustainable leadership and despite Finnlines’ turnover and profitability have also declined due to economic slowdown, we were not made part of any of the EUR 70 million maritime public financial aid distributed to other shipping companies during the Covid-19 pandemic,” declares Mr Grimaldi.
“On the contrary, we found ourselves to compete in a very tough period, with a lot of sustainable investments ongoing, against competitors operating on the same routes, with same type of services, but without enjoying at all their subsidies. This of course cause to Finnlines harm and difficulties. Furthermore, this has proved to be inequal, distortive of market rules and against the EU market laws. We therefore still dare to suggest a more equal, horizontal, green and proportional distribution of public aids.”
Click on the picture to see the relevant file:
The construction of Finnlines’ second new hybrid ro-ro vessel –FINNECO II– started at the Chinese Nanjing Jinling shipyard. The first steel plates were cut in the traditional steel cutting ceremony on 16 September 2020.
Finnlines’ ongoing EUR 500 million newbuilding program, which includes three green hybrid ro-ro vessels as well as two eco-friendly Superstar ro-pax vessels, will further increase Finnlines’ energy efficiency.
In addition to lithium-ion battery banks, which enable ‘zero emissions in port’, they will be equipped with several advanced technologies to save energy and thus reduce emissions further.
The ro-ro vessels are expected to be delivered during 2021–2022 and the Superstar ro-pax vessels are set to start in traffic in 2023.
Finnlines: Essential Lifeline for Finland – Challenging Q2
H1 2020
Q2 2020
Especially Q2 was extremely challenging, with almost no passenger traffic and the slowdown in global trade caused by the global pandemic.
Finnline is essential for the supply of island-like Finland. The company says that it transports more than one third of the roughly one million trucks moving over the three main sea bridges, Finland–Estonia, Finland–Sweden and Finland–Germany, which are connecting Finland to the rest of Europe.
During H1, Finnlines operated on average 19 vessels in its own traffic. The cargo volumes totalled approximately 357k (386k) cargo units, 60k (88k) cars (not including passengers’ cars) and 522k (581k) tons of freight not possible to measure in units.
In addition, some 227k (310k) private and commercial passengers were transported.
Finnlines has been following closely all the emergency measures to shipping companies, and aims for fair conditions of competition.
Stena Line Adds Ships Again On North Sea Routes
Due to a steady recovery in freight volumes on the North Sea during the last weeks, roro ships HATCHE and STENA FORERUNNER will return to commercial service on the Stena Line freight routes Europoort – Killingholme and Europoort – Harwich, respectively.
As of 15 June 2020, Stena Line will be back to having 8 ships operating on its 4 routes on the North Sea.
The construction of Finnlines’ newest environmentally friendly ro-ro vessel was started on 8 June 2020, with the steel cutting in the Chinese Nanjing Jinling shipyard.
The first ro-ro vessel is expected to start operation as early as next year, and the other two in 2022.
In addition to this, Finnlines has also ordered two giant Superstar vessels, which will be pioneer in honouring green values. The total investment including five new vessels is EUR 500 million.
The first steel plates are being cut in the traditional steel cutting ceremony.
In the picture Finnlines’ representative Site Manager Mr Davor Radic.
The National Emergency Supply Agency (NESA) in Finland is prepared to spend EUR 45 million on financial support to ensure the transport of vital cargo from Finland to Sweden, Baltic countries and Continental Europe.
Finnlines welcomes this decision and published a press release to draw attention on the importance of the company as a lifeline maritime connection.
NESA has already granted financial support to four out of seven commercial operators securing the main maritime bridges for rubber-tyred vehicles. The first support actions taken by NESA where addressed to ropax operators whose operations are not viable without revenue from recreational travellers. For more freight-oriented operators, the threat of serious disturbances was less imminent. However, the corona crisis is having a strong impact in Finland’s economy and the value added of the transport sector is estimated to fall by around 20%, to which Finnlines is also exposed to.
After several weeks of negotiations and encouraged by NESA, Finnlines has also filed an application under this same emergency financial support programme.
Finnlines is still waiting for NESA’s emergency financial support decision but feels confident in receiving support based on Finnlines’ pivotal role in securing Finland’s security of supply.
A member of the Grimaldi family, Finnlines repeats its mantra: “Companies that operate in the same sector and compete with each other should have uniform and equal opportunities to apply for and receive financial aid granted by the State and authorities. Non-discrimination and ensuring fair conditions of competition are the basic principles of EU State aid rules.”
