The 1982-built ferry MOBY ZAZA has been chartered by SNAV, an MSC company.
During summer she will be deployed on the reopened maritime bridge linking the ports of Ancona in Italy and Split in Croatia.
The Moby ship, which offers 700 lane metres garage deck and can accommodate up to 1,860 passengers, will sail on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from Ancona and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from Split.
In the summer of 2022, MOBY ZAZA was chartered to Balearia.
Following the previous failed attempt, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana has just launched a new public tender aimed at finding shipyards interested at building a pair of new dual-fual highspeed ferries to be operated by BluJet in the Strait of Massina.
The tender price stands now at EUR 52.19 million for two vessels (i.e EUR 26 million per unit) with an option for a third unit at a price of EUR 22.5 million.
Each ferry will have to be 50 metres long with a passenger capacity of 350.
Expiring date for submitting offers is September 30th and delivery date should be first half of 2026.
Italian Marinvest (a company of the MSC Group) and Naples-based ferry firm SNAV officially announced the signing of an order with Intermarine shipyard for a new hybrid monohull highspeed craft to be delivered in 2024. It will be deployed on the routes in the Gulf of Naples.
Technical details:
58.2m length | 11.5m beam | 738 pax and 12 crew members | 34 knots maximum speed
A project by Intermarine’s Messina research centre
Naples-based ferry company SNAV (MSC Group) is in advanced talks with the Italian shipyard Intermarine for a new single-hull ship capable of transporting up to 700 passengers, several sources revealed to Ferry Shipping News.
The ship in question will be deployed on the routes connecting Naples with the surrounding islands and the delivery is scheduled 18 months after the signing of the contract.
“The design and construction of aluminum fast ferries has been for many years the core business of Rodriquez Cantieri Navali (merged into Intermarine in 2013), that has built a significant number of vessels in the range from 30 to 115 meters for operators from all over the world” says the shipyard website.
Today the production of fast ferries is focused on vessels of smaller size, ranging from 40 to 70 meters, with different types of hulls: monohulls, catamarans, wave-piercing catamarans and hydrofoils.
All five companies operating passenger transport services in the Gulf of Naples decided to close down or reduce the sailings offered to and from the surrounding islands (such as Capri, Ischia, etc.).
Three labour unions (Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl e Uiltrasporti) publicly protested against the ferry companies Alilauro, Snav, Medmar, Navigazione Libera del Golfo e Gestour and complaining that less sailings have a direct impact on the workforce and on the social distance needed for the people onboard during the current pandemic emergency.
The ferry companies from their side decided to reduce the number of ships deployed and the sailings offered to and from Naples just because, due to the new procedure and limits introduced by the local authorities, the number of passengers sharply decreased.
Gianluigi Aponte’s Italian holding Marinvest revealed in its last yearly financial report that both Grandi Navi Veloci and SNAV are back in profit, after some years in red.
In 2019, the Genoa-based ferry company GNV closed with a net profit of almost EUR 1 million, while the previous year the loss amounted to EUR 13.4 million.
Following the outbreak of Covid-19, the results were heavily impacted in the first half of this year and GNV asked for a new EUR 25 million bank loan in line with the “Decreto Liquidità” law approved by the Italian Government (in order to make it possible for the companies to overcome those challenging months).
The Aponte family also injected EUR 17 million in the company, as a potential capital increase for the future if needed.
Also, the Marinvest-controlled ferry company SNAV, today mainly focused on the lines in the Gulf of Naples, between Naples and the Aeolian islands and between Ancona and the Croatian port of Split, last year closed with a profit of almost EUR 1.5 million, coming from a red of almost EUR 550k in 2018.
Naples-based SNAV, the ferry company owned my Marinvest (the Italian holding company owned by the Aponte family), last year closed with a loss of EUR 550,000 (from a red of EUR 2.5 million in 2017), and the result is also due to an in-depth reorganisation of the business and of the structure.
Today SNAV mainly focuses on three business: the short sea ferry services from the port of Naples to the surrounding islands and from/to the Eolian islands, the link between the ports of Ancona and Split in Croatia, and the chartering management of the owned ferries and high-speed vessels.
The objective of the company from 2019 onwards is to reach a long-lasting financial equilibrium.
Last year SNAV also purchased the ferry SNAV ADRIATICO (ex-STENA BALTICA) for a price of EUR 7.4 million after six years of time charter from Stena and has been immediately re-chartered out for 3+3 years to Grandi Navi Veloci.
Ferry Passengers Increasing (+4%) And Ro-Ro Decreasing (-1%) In The Port Of Ancona
In 2018, 1,151,266 passengers were handled in the port of Ancona, 6% more compared with the year before, and 1,084,235 of those were transported by ferries (+4%).
More in detail:
The ferry companies active in the port of Ancona are Minoan Lines, Superfast Ferries and Anek Lines (to and from Greece), Grandi Navi Veloci and Adria Ferries (to and from Albania) and Jadrolinija and Snav (to and from Croatia).
As for the ro-ro traffic, 147,650 trucks and trailers were handled in the port in 2018, which means a 1% decrease compared with the previous year.
Following complaints filed by frequent customers and tourists, antitrust authority in Italy found that competitive constraints and unfair market conditions seems to be still present in the short sea ferry market between the port of Naples and the surrounding islands.
MSC’s controlled SNAV and Caremar, and the company Alilauro owned by the local Lauro family dominate the market.
The Antitrust authority asked the Campania Region to rethink the regulation introduced in 2016 in order to make the ferry market more transparent, accessible for new entrants and competitive.
In January 2015, the same Italian Competition Authority fined ten ferry services operators, active in the Gulf of Naples and Salerno, for their failure to respect commitments agreed on in a previous investigation. (Nicola Cappuzo)
