Corsica Linea To Charter STENA SUPERFAST X
Corsica Linea has agreed with Stena RoRo to charter ropax STENA SUPERFAST X long term.
She is actually operating in the Irish Sea on Dublin – Holyhead
On Friday 31 January 2020 Stena Line closed the Varberg-Grenaa route. The day after, on Saturday 1 February the Halmstad – Grenaa route was officially opened. The inauguration started early Saturday morning in Grenaa with almost a thousand visitors attending. The Transport minister of Denmark Benny Engelbrecht attended the ceremony in Grenaa and joined the sea journey to Halmstad where 8,000 people waited for Stena Nautica on the quay.
There was an open day for the ferry during where thousands of people visited the ship. The official inauguration ceremony was conducted by Dan Sten Olsson, the owner and CEO of Stena AB, the infrastructure minister of Sweden Tomas Eneroth, the governor of Halland Lena Sommestad and Transport minister of Denmark Benny Engelbrecht.
The new route will be operated by STENA NAUTICA with a capacity of 900 passengers and 1265 lane meters. Crossing time is 4h35. Up to two departures per day.
Stena Line’s ambition is to double both the passenger and freight volumes within five years.
This ferry is the first CoCo Yachts designed ferry for Xiamen Marine Passenger and Tourist Transportation Group,
and will be sailing between Xiamen and Jinmen. The new designed Coastal Cruiser 350 will be designed
and built in accordance with the China Classification Society Rules 2017.
The hull, including the propeller tunnel, have been designed and optimized by using the in house HPC cluster, running Numeca FineMarine CFD software in order to achieve the best possible performance. Not only the resistance has been optimized for the highest possible efficiency, also seakeeping at 25 knots service speed has been optimized.
The interior design will be very comfortable for passengers, with low noise and vibrations levels, and high capacity air conditioning system. 210 Comfortable economy seats will be placed on the main deck, and 135 business class seats as well as 5 VIP seats on the upper deck. Kiosks will be located both on main and upper deck.
The aluminium high speed passenger ferries will be built at Plenty Ships – Yaguang Group in Zhuhai
In a letter sent to the editor in chief of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, replying to an article published a few hours earlier, Vincenzo Onorato, head of Moby Group, revealed some details of the business plan that he was trying to perform until the action taken from the bondholders to the Court of Milan made the things going worse.
One of the most interesting details is that both the roro ships MARIA GRAZIA ONORATO and ALF POLLAK bareboat chartered by Fratelli Onorato Armatori and sub-chartered to Tirrenia Cin was not done directly with Moby, in order not to increase the company’s financial exposure. “At least until we were able to obtain a financial deleverage of the group” and this plan was possible with the sale and purchase of two ferries with DFDS since “EUR 66 millions of the total 75 million expected should have gone to the banks as anticipated payment of the mortgage”. The deal was not completed also because Unicredit did not give the needed green light.
Going back to the two roro ships, Onorato added: “We already informed the banks about our availability to put them inside Moby group” thus transferring the control from Fratelli Onorato Armatory, separated company controlled by Vincenzo Onorato’s sons, Achille and Alessandro.
The seasoned Italian shipowner concluded anticipating that “the group controlled by Onorato Armatori will close 2019 in profit and with better results compared with the previous year”. He further stated that Moby’s fleet has a value in his opinion of EUR 1.2 billion.
On 28 January 2020, BLUE STAR MYCONOS, ex- NISSOS MYKONOS of HSW returned in service with a new name and livery. The ship replaced her sister NISSOS CHIOS on the North East Aegean lines, which also renamed BLUE STAR CHIOS and change into the Blue Star Ferries livery.
BLUE STAR CHIOS entered service on 4 February 2020, replacing BLUE STAR PATMOS which will sail for her scrubber conversion in Malta.
The ex-HSW’s sisters have been incorporated by the Blue Star Ferries following a decision of the ATTICA Group, as they mainly operate on Blue Star Ferries routes and share the same fleet design. The two popular ferries will soon undergo a scrubber conversion in Malta (Palumbo Shipyards).
Knud E. Hansen presented a new 212m ropax ferry that can transport up to 700 passengers and 390 cars. The vessel also boasts 2955 lane metres for trucks and trailers. The layout and access arrangements makes it an ideal choice for the Mediterranean market although it is also well suited for a variety of locations and operating conditions worldwide.
DFDS: Interim and Full-Year Report Q4 2019
The UK market for freight and passengers slowed further in Q4 due to Brexit uncertainty. This lowered earnings for several business units, particularly Channel and North Sea.
Logistics Division increased EBITDA 17% in Q4 as contract logistics in UK & Ireland and other activities across the division continued to perform well despite the UK slowdown.
Mediterranean’s revenue development was ahead of expectations in Q4 but a change in the accounting for ferry maintenance and spare part costs added operating costs of DKK 48m. Moreover, port congestion in Trieste lowered the efficiency of train services.
Operational improvements in the route network are on track.
Outlook 2020
Positive impact from the Win23 strategy initiatives
Negative impact: uncertainty about Brexit
Revenue is expected to grow around 4% and EBITDA before special items is expected to be within a range of DKK 3.5-3.9bn (2019: DKK 3.6bn).
AS Tallink Grupp statistics for January 2020
The drop in cargo volumes has to do with the now availability of tonnage because of refit.
Rauma Marine Constructions to Partner with Aalto University Looking to Cut Emissions and Increase Safety
Rauma Marine Constructions Oy and Aalto University have concluded an agreement on joint research and development efforts. This collaboration aims especially at developing technologies that can improve the environmental and safety aspects of seafaring in order to reduce its carbon footprint, make use of new fuels and further develop maritime safety.
The New Finnlines Ferries Will Have Corvus Energy Batteries on Board for Zero-Emissions Operations
Corvus Energy has been selected by Wärtsilä to supply energy storage systems (ESS) for three new battery hybrid ferries for Finnlines.
All three ships will have the RINA’s Green Plus class notation.