TT-Line, operating ferries between Sweden, Germany and Poland, has decided to have the ferry PETER PAN lengthened by 30m.
In early 2018 the ro-pax will go to Bremerhaven, where German Drydocks will do the job. The vessel will also get a new bow, with improved fuel consumption characteristics. The process will take two months.
Photo © TT Line
Finnlines Plc has sold the ro-pax vessel FINNEAGLE to the Grimaldi Group following a strategy “to optimise the use of Finnlines’ vessels and routes in order to improve its profitability.”
The 1999-built FINNEAGLE was chartered out to the Grimaldi Group from June 2017. The delivery of the 2,459 lane meter vessel to the Grimaldi Group will take place this month. She is currently in drydock in Gdansk.
Photo: FINNTIDE (for lengthening) and FINNEAGLE in Gdansk © Jakub Bogucki
Emanuele Grimaldi is going to practice what he has been preaching, by ordering ten environmental-friendly ro-ro ships. An order for six will have an option for four, and several Chinese yards are in the running. That is what he announced at the 21st EuroMed conference.
The ships will have underwater air lubrication technology, scrubbers and will be hybrid. Indeed, they will be equipped with lithium batteries, which will allow switching off the engines when in port.
In the last four years, the group already invested two billion euros in 25 new ships, and 300 million euros to make the existing fleet and operations greener. CO2 was reduced by 9% in six years, and sulfur emissions were reduced by 24%, said Grimaldi at the opening of the conference.
Additionally it was announced that capacity of CRUISE ROMA and CRUISE BARCELONA is going to be enhanced by lengthening. This will probably be done by Fincantieri in Palermo, a yard with a large experience in this field after the lengthening of four MSC cruise ships. The final details of the contract still need fine-tuning. The vessels will also receive a “lithium-upgrade”.
Passenger capacity will rise from 3,000 to 3,500.
Photo: CRUISE ROMA © Mike Louagie
Former Bass Strait ro-pax BRIDGE (built in 1976 as BASS TRADER and known in Europe as MERCEDES DEL MAR, Iscomar, and BLUE BRIDGE, Blue Ferries) has left Albania, bound for Port Said. Her new name, DUBA BRIDGE, says it all about her new role. As many other European ferry veterans, she will operate on the Duba (Saudi-Arabia) – Safaga (Egypt) Red Sea route.
Photo © Neven Jerkovic
Red Funnel is going to spend £3m on a major refurbishment of its ro-pax ferry RED EAGLE in the New Year.
The work will be similar to the new look given to RED FALCON and RED OSPREY in 2014 and 2015. The main contract has been awarded to Trimline in Southampton, with aluminium fabrication work contracted to Wight Shipyard Ltd in East Cowes. The refit will be carried out in Southampton.
Photo © Red Funnel
Polferries have finally introduced the recently acquired ro-pax ferry CRACOVIA on the ever-growing Ystad-Świnoujście line.
The ro-pax ship was built in 2002 in Spain for Merchant Ferries, as a vessel in a series of five. She mainly served Trasmediterranea routes to the Balearic and Canary IslandS. After a stint in the Black Sea, she was sold to Polferries in May 2017. She has space for 64 cars, 124 trucks and 650 passengers.
Ystad Harbor is Sweden’s largest port for ferry services to and from Poland and this traffic has grown sharply in recent years. In 2016, truck traffic between Ystad and Świnoujście increased by 13%.
Photo: Jakub Bogucki
Since DRUJBA was sold to Polferries as CRACOVIA (see above), a replacement had to be found for Drujba Line, the Bulgaria-based ferry company that operates a one-vessel Black Sea service from Burgas, Bulgaria to Batumi (Georgia) and Novorossiysk (Russia). The company now operates the former Tirrenia ferry LAZIO (1994), which was acquired by the Burgas-based company PB Shipping EOOD earlier this year.
Almost one week after the grounding near Ios, ro-pax ferry BLUE STAR PATMOS was refloated. After discharging the cars and trucks in Ios, she will sail to the Piraeus area, for repairs.
In the press and social media Blue Star Ferries has been praised for the professional way of handling the incident.
Geneva-based shipping company MSC has signed a letter of intent with Guangzhou Shipyard International for four new ro-pax ships, plus four options, says a Fairplay report.
Although an official confirmation has not been given yet, it is believed that the ro-pax ferries will start to be delivered in 2019 to MSC’s subsidiary GNV. The 3,000 lane metre, 2,500-passenger overnight ferries would be LNG-ready.
MSC, who also own Italian ferry company SNAV, acquired the last remaining shares of GNV in January 2016, making it a 100% MSC subsidiary.
GNV operates 10 ro-pax ferries, on 15 routes in the Western Mediterranean.
