By
Rebecca Gibson |
A large new vessel on the English Channel, still the fulcrum of the ferry industry in Northern Europe, remains an event. So there was a frisson of anticipation just before Christmas when major Channel operator, Brittany Ferries, let it be known it was close to ordering a large LNG-powered ship after a major study with French shipyard STX in St Nazaire.
The new dual-fuel ship, finally confirmed four weeks later, will be able to take 2,400 passengers and 800 cars or a mix with 80 trucks. The €270 million vessel is being likened to the Viking Grace, which started in Baltic service 15 months ago and was built by STX in Finland. The French ship will cut carbon dioxide emissions by 25% and mostly eliminate sulphur and nitrous oxides. It will have marine gas oil as a backup.
It is being stressed this quest for the ultimate environmentally friendly ship does not simply cover the use of LNG. Use will also be made of compound materials and high-strength glues in an advanced hull design. One possible snag in the plan is that the STX parent in South Korea wants to sell off its three European shipyards, including the St Nazaire facility, where the Paris Government has a one-third strategic stake.
An altogether more complicated story has emerged from Scandlines, the German/Danish Baltic ferry operator which has been trying to order two 1,300-passenger vessels for its key Gedser/Rostock route for the last three years. An original contract worth €230 million with P+S Werft in Germany was cancelled when the financially pressed yard could not complete the contract to specification. The yard has since gone bankrupt.
Scandlines then turned its attentions to STX shipyard at Rauma in Finland, where it managed to negotiate a letter of intent to build the vessels. In the meantime the parent company in South Korea let it be known it wanted to sell off all three of its European yards – two in Finland and one in France – because of poor financial returns.
The impact of this and other factors meant that the Rauma yard also could not secure the finance for the deal and the negotiations with Scandlines were ended. So the ferry company has now gone back to the P+S administrator to negotiate a deal for the unfinished hulls, originally valued at €230 million together but under discussion now for a reported sum of €31 million. A representative of the line explains: “We have now started to look at alternatives and we are waiting for the administrator’s reaction. There is next to nothing in the hulls, which are much too heavy for our requirements. If our offer is successful we will take them to another yard for completion.”
BC Ferries, the large Canadian west coast operator, is seeking international quotations from five shipyards for three new vessels able to take 600 passengers and up to 145 vehicles each. Two will replace the Queen of Burnaby and Queen of Nanaimo, 48 and 49 years old respectively, while the third ship will augment peak sailings and act as a relief ship when vessels are being refitted.
The shipyards approached are from Norway, Germany, Poland and Turkey, with just one from Canada. Some years ago the line would have been expected to build in Canada, but now it goes where it can get the best price. Mark Wilson, vice president of engineering, says the new ships are seen as a stepping stone to reducing the ships’ classes in its present fleet of 35 vessels from 18 to just five. The greater standardisation involved in this process will also save the company money, he says.
The new ships will be dual-fuelled, LNG and marine diesel, and will go some way to cutting the line’s fuel bill, which last year was C$121 million. The line, disentangled from Government 10 years ago, raises its own finance for new ships but does get a minority subsidy of around 20% to help with running costs. The tenders will close at the end of February and an order is expected to be placed in the spring. The company would not give a ball-park total figure for the three ferries as the project is in the tendering phase.
China’s reputation as a builder of passenger ships for the international market was given a significant boost when the Afai Southern shipyard landed a US$110 million contract to build seven double-ended aluminium ferries for the Brazilian state of Rio De Janeiro. Part of the point of the order is to enable the state to cope with the huge influx of visitors expected for this year’s football World Cup and the next Olympic Games to be held in the city in 2016. The contract was won in the face of strong competition from bidders in 22 countries, says shipyard manager, Wu Mingyi.
When the large Incat catamaran, named Francisco, was delivered to Buquebus for operation across the River Plate between Buenos Aires in Argentina and Montevideo in Uruguay, at 58 knots (67mph) she was immediately dubbed the Concorde of the Seas. She can operate with 1,024 passengers and 150 cars. “She is certainly the fastest ship in the world outside pure speedboats,” says Buquebus chairman, Juan Carlos Lopez Mena.
Delivery of the vessel means that the Tasmanian builder has just one contract left in the ferry sector – an 85m catamaran for Sado Steamship Company in Japan. She will ply between Honshu and Sado Islands. Delivery is early in 2015 and she will carry 700 passengers plus 173 cars in car-only mode. She will be Sado Steamship’s first high-speed carrier.
This article appeared in the Spring/Summer 2014 edition of International Cruise & Ferry Review. To read other articles, you can subscribe to the magazine in printed or digital formats.