Grimaldi News 44

West Med developments
Motorways of the Sea
A busy fall for the West Med Ro/Ro network. While the links
upgraded in late October, since early November Cagliari entered the
Grimaldi
Suardiaz
joint-venture
The Grimaldi Group and Flota Suardíaz of
Spain have forged a joint venture to develop
a Motorway of the sea linking Livorno
and Barcelona. Under the agreement, as from
1 January 2009, the newly incorporated joint
venture called Grimaldi Suardíaz is to operate
the Ro/Ro-Pax vessel Florencia. This ship is
currently operating the same three-times-aweek
service under the Grimaldi Lines flag.
Built in 2004 the Florencia is capable of transporting
up to 1,000 passengers, 2,230 linear
metres of Ro/Ro cargo and 160 cars. The new
alliance aims to develop the trade further
and, should market conditions improve, the
joint venture would in fact deploy a second
vessel on the route upgrading it to a daily frequency.
The Livorno/Barcelona Route is part of the
so-called “Long bridge” service operating
on the trades between Spain and Portugal on
the Western side and Greece and a large part
of the Balkan region on the Eastern side. The
Long Bridge offers haulage companies a single
ferry ticket for the two legs by sea: from
Patras or Igoumenitsa to Venice or Ancona
onto Minoan Lines ferries and from Civitavecchia
or Livorno to Barcelona on Grimaldi Lines
or Grimaldi Suardíaz and vice versa.
North Europe
Baltic Sea
North America
South
America
West Africa
Barcelona
Valencia
Since early November the Group
has substantially strengthened
two sets of services supporting the
development of trades to and from
Sicily. Both the Civitavecchia/Catania
service, linking the Centre of Italy to
the Sicilian port, and the Genoa/Catania
service that connects the island to
the North West of Italy (as well as to
Europe’s Central regions), each service
has been improved by upgrading
their frequency from two to three
times a week. In both cases, this corresponds
to an increase in transport
capacity of one third on each route.
Both lines were set up in 2006 and,
Toulon
Sicilian Ties
Grow Stronger
Genoa
Porto
Vecchio
Cagliari
Tunis
since then, have seen a substantial
growth in volumes transported. They
are served by three Ro/Ro vessels of
the Eurocargo class, each having a
capacity of up to 170 trucks or trailers
and 400 cars. These ships are also fitted
with cabins for up to 50 drivers.
Through Civitavecchia, cargo from
Catania can connect to the entire
Grimaldi Network, either towards the
Western Mediterranean (Barcelona,
Toulon, Tunis), the Eastern Mediterranean
as well as towards Northern
Europe, West Africa, South and North
America. Catania is also directly connected
to Malta and Libya.
Livorno
Civitavecchia
Tripoli
Salerno
Palermo
Catania
Malta
Misratah
4 GNEWS