Scandinavian Shipping Gazette 8

8 

Ro-ro 

Technology 

Are you working 91 

hours a week? page 12 

Bore + ConRo = 

RoFlex page 44 

When to order ro-ro on 

a builder’s market page 60 

April 18 2008, 7 €

Finnlines’ aim is to be the leading company in 

its fi eld. For a company operating in the service 

sector, competent and enthusiastic employees 

are a key resource. 

A good, well-planned human resource 

policy serves to guarantee the enthusiasm and 

expertise of our personnel. 

A CAREER OPPORTUNITY 

WITH ROOM FOR MY 

PERSONALITY 

Employee satisfaction are one of the main values 

of Finnlines. We are constantly aiming 

to achieve this by being a reliable and motivating 

employer treating employees with 

fairness and equality, encouraging every 

employee to continuously develop his or her 

own competence and expertise. 

THE WAY TO GO IN SHIPPING 

The competence of our personnel is ensured 

through continuous training. One of the challenges 

for the future is to attract new, talented 

persons as Yourself. 

For further information on vacancies 

please contact our human resource offi cer at 

Finnlines Ship Management. 

FINNLINES PLC, PORKKALANKATU 20 A, FI-00180 HELSINKI, FINLAND, 

TELEPHONE: +358 (0)10 343 50, FAX: +358 (0)10 343 4242, EMAIL: SEAPERSONNELFIN@FINNLINES.COM 

FINNLINES SHIP MANAGEMENT AB, BOX 158, SE - 201 21 MALMÖ, SWEDEN, 

TELEPHONE: +46 (0)40-17 68 40, FAX: +46 (0)40-17 68 41 / 17 68 51, EMAIL: SEAPERSONNELSWE@FINNLINES.COM 

WWW.FINNLINES.COM

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SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE, APRIL 18, 2008 

IN THIS ISSUE 

12 Long hours on watch 

60 

32 72 

15 The first China ro-ro to DFDS 

18 Bore – New business areas 

complementing ro-ro 

SPECIAL FEATURE 

Ro-ro Technology 

21 During several decades ro-ro 

has been the foremost cargo 

handling method in Scandinavia 

regarding short-sea shipments 

of general cargo. In this issue of 

SSG we take a look at the state 

of ro-ro today in Scandinavia. 

REGULARS 

4 News Review 

11 Editorial 

72 Fleet News 

73 Technical News 

74 IT & Communications 

75 Market Reports 

82 The battleship duel off Nordkap 

FRONT PAGE PICTURE 

36 

22 

Det Norske Veritas (DNV) is an independent 

foundation established 1864 

with the objective to safeguarding life, 

property and the environment. With 

8,000 employees in more than 100 

countries, DNV’s global network is linked 

by efficient information technology. 

DNV’s prime assets in risk managing are 

the creativity, knowledge and expertise 

of the employees. Read more about DNV 

on www.dnv.com and on page 35.

TALLINk 

NEWS REVIEW 

SjaaStad haS decided to reSign 

Bjørn Sjaastad, CEO of Frontline 

Management AS, is to resign. Sjaastad 

has decided for family reasons to move 

back to his home in Bergen. Bjørn 

Sjaastad is expected to leave the company 

before the end of June. 

The board of Frontline will immediately 

start the recruitment process in 

order to find a new CEO. 

LLoyd’S poSted record reSuLt 

The insurance market Lloyd’s reports 

a GBP 3.8 billion profit for 2007, of 

which around GBP 2 billion was from 

investment returns. The combined ratio 

was 84 per cent and total written premiums 

reached GBP 16.4 billion. The 

marine insurance portfolio generated 

GBP 1,226 million and provided GBP 

127 million to the overall result with a 

combined ratio of 95 per cent. 

The Superstar. 

taLLink´S SuperStar deLivered 

Fincantieris’ Ancona Shipyard has delivered 

the Tallink ferry Superstar, the 

ship will be deployed in the Tallinn- 

Helsinki service from 21 April. The 

Superstar has a capacity of 2,080 passengers, 

a cargo capacity of 1,930 lane 

metres and a speed of 27.5 knot. 

The vessel will complement the Tallink 

Shuttle service and offer fast trips 

all the year round. Tallink ordered the 

Superstar in 2005 at a price of was EUR 

120 million. 

Sea containerS Ltd SoLd ShareS 

Silja Line’s former owner, SeaContainers 

Ltd., has sold 50 per cent of Sea 

Containers Finland Oy to Greek Eugenides 

Group. 

Sea Containers Finland Oy operates 

the fast ferries Superseacat Three and 

Superseacat Four in the Tallinn-Helsinki 

service and owns the subsidiary 

SuperSeaCat OÜ in Tallinn. 

imo agree to reduce 

ship emissions 

ssg-göteborg. IMO’s MEPC meeting 

held in London has been hailed as a success 

after the delegates agreed on several 

regulations on ship emissions. 

From 2010, the sulphur content in ship’s 

fuel burned in SECAs will be lowered to 

1.0 per cent. In 2012, the global cap on 

sulphur content will be lowered from 4.5 

per cent to 3.5 per cent. Three years later, 

the limits for SECAs will be lowered again 

down to 0.1 per cent sulphur content and 

in 2020, the global cap will be set at 0.5 

per cent. In 2018, the measures will be 

reviewed to see if the market has been able 

to cope with the demand for cleaner fuel. 

MEPC does not say that the fuel must 

necessarily be destilled. 

When it comes to NOx reductions, the 

limit is set at emissions of 17 g/kW for 

engines installed prior to 1 January, 2011, 

engines installed thereafter get a 14.4 g/ 

kW limit and engines installed on or after 

1 January, 2016 must have NOx emission 

levels reduced to 3.4 g/kW when operating 

in a SECA but outside the 14.4 limit still 

applies. 

The delegates also agreed to hold a 

meeting in Norway during the summer to 

address issues concerning greenhouse gas 

emissions. All the MEPC 57 agreements 

are to be adopted at the MEPC 58, which 

meets in October. 

The proposals have been widely hailed 

as a positive step for the environment as 

well as IMO, which from time to time is 

criticized for 

being to slow 

and ineffective. 

The steps proposed 

at MEPC 57 

are considered 

progressive. 

“it will certainly 

be one 

of IMO’s finest 

hours when 

this happens six 

months from 

now”, said IMO 

Secretary-General 

Mr Efthimos 

Mr Efthimos E. 

Mitropoulos 

E. Mitropoulos at the closing of the meeting. 

The European Commission’s permanent 

representative at IMO, Martin Koopmans, 

has been indicating that the measures will 

be enough to keep the EU from drawing 

up its own regulations, if the proposals 

really are adopted in October. 

The only negative comment seen so far 

comes from the European Community 

Shipowners’ Association, which, according 

to Lloyds List, says the lower SOx emission 

levels applied in SECA may affect short 

sea shipping negatively since SECAs exist 

where short sea shipping exists and the low 

sulphur fuel will be more expensive which 

might push trade from the sea to the roads 

and trucks – an issue ECSA says the EU 

must deal with. 

Former maerSk boSS new head oF wiSta, The former head of communication 

at A. P. Møller-Mærsk, Jette Clausen, has been elected chairman of the board of WISTA 

Denmark. She is taking over the position from Marianne Sørensen, who declined 

re-election after six years on the post. The board now consists of Vivi Johansen, 

Søfartsstyrelsen, Marlika Virrankoski-Poilsen, Clipper Group, Birgitte Sølgaard, MAQS 

Law Firm and Nina Lomborg, D/S Torm. 

Lauritzen Kosan buys more LPG’s in Korea 

ssg-ringkøbing. Lauritzen Kosan enlarges 

its portfolio of ethylene carriers from 

Korean shipyards. Recently Lauritzen 

Kosan has purchased three ethylene carriers 

from a Greek company for delivery in 

2010 from the Korean shipbuilder Hyundai 

Heavy Industries. The Hyundai trio will 

4 SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • APRIL 18, 2008 

IMO 

be larger than the current series of 12 new 

ships under construction at Sekwang Heavy 

Industries. The Hyundai ships will be on 

9,000 cbm compared to the 8,000 on the 

Sekwang-series. The total number of new 

ethylene carriers in the Lauritzen Kosan 

fleet will be 15 units already in 2010.

no strike on swedish 

vessels – agreement reached 

SSG-GöteborG. The Swedish Shipowners’ 

Employers’ Association and the two Swedish 

ship officers’ trade unions have signed 

a new collective bargaining agreement 

covering the period 1 January 2008 to 31 

January 2011. 

As a consequence, all notices of strike 

and lockout actions have been withdrawn. 

SSG-rinGkøbinG. The Canadian shipping 

company Algoma Tankers will continue to 

sail under Danish flag with their tanker 

Algoma Hansa after the recent take over. 

Until a week ago the ship was sailing under 

its previous name Amalienborg (named 

after the royal Danish castle) under a bareboatcharter 

for Danish Dannebrog Rederi. 

Our strength - your benefit! 

The new agreement includes a wage 

increase by 5.3 per cent from 1 February 

this year, 5.0 per cent next year and 4.0 per 

cent from 1 February 2010. 

In addition, officers on tankers and dry 

cargo vessels above 3,000 gt will receive an 

increment of 4.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent 

respectively. 

Canadian tanker under Danish flag 

However the Canadian buyer decided to 

continue to sail under Danish flag with 

Rungsted as homeport. Algoma Tankers 

purchased the sister ship Aggersborg in 

2005, but re-flagged the ship to Canadian 

flag under the name Algosea. In 1998 the 

vessels were the first tankers to be built by 

a US shipyard for foreign account. 

Rosella to replace Ålandsfärjan 

SSG-åbo. Viking Line will transfer the 

ferry Rosella to the Mariehamn – Kapellskär 

service. On her present route between 

Helsinki and Tallinn, the Rosella will be 

replaced by the newbuilding Viking XPRS 

at the end of April. 

The Rosella will be deployed in the service 

across the Åland Sea at the end of 

May after a refit. 

She will replace the much smaller ferry 

Ålandsfärjan, which has been trading on 

the route since spring, 1987. This will not 

become a permanent traffic arrangement 

for the Mariehamn – Kapellskär service, as 

Viking Line has the purpose-built newbuilding 

Viking ADCC under construction in 

PäR-HENRIk SjöSTRöM 

The Ålandsfärjan. 

Spain for delivery in summer, 2009. 

Viking Line’s Managing Director Nils- 

Erik Eklund told SSG that the Ålandsfärjan 

is no longer needed in the fleet and will 

be up for sale. 

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The MSC Napoli. 

Removal of final steRn section 

The removal of the final stern section 

of the MSC Napoli started on 10 April. 

Clean-up contractors will be in place 

throughout the five-month removal 

operation. The hull of the MSC Napoli 

was cracked in a storm off the coast 

of Cornwall on January 18, 2007. The 

crew of 26 were airlifted to safety and 

the vessel was deliberately grounded 

because it was feared she could sink. 

The salvage work havs been extensive, 

in August, last year, the bow section of 

the container vessel was salvaged and 

transported to the shipyard Harland 

and Wolff for recycling 

stRike at Polish Bct called off 

The strike at Baltic Container Terminal, 

BCT, in Gdynia has been called 

off after 13 days. The final negotiations 

on Tuesday 1 April lasted 13 hours. No 

one is willing to go into the details of 

the compromise reached. The employees’ 

main demand was a salary increase 

of 17 per cent of their basic salary. The 

board was only willing to agree to 13 

per cent. 

The strike started on 20 March. 

During the strike, container vessels 

were rerouted to other ports and terminals. 

LNG and Boiler Automation 

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annons.indd 1 07-10-01 17.33.20 

SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • APRIL 18, 2008 5 

THE BRITISH MCA 

NEWS REVIEW

CoLoR LINE 

NEWS REVIEW 

camiLLo eitzen in carrier deaL 

Camillo Eitzen & Co ASA has reached 

an agreement in principle for the sale 

of two bulk carriers, the 53,100 DWT 

Sibulk Innovation, built in 2004 and 

the 55,700 DWT Sibulk Quality, built 

in 2005. 

The vessels will be delivered in July 

2008 to an undisclosed buyer. The total 

price for the two vessels is USD 145.5 

million. 

mærSk veSSeLS to uS SubSidiary 

A. P. Møller-Mærsk is about to sell two 

container feeder carriers to its US subsidiary 

Maersk Inc in Norfolk, Virginia. 

The two vessels are the Agnete Mærsk 

and the Christian Mærsk. The Agnete 

Mærsk has a capacity of 1,092 TEUs. 

The Christian Mærsk has a capacity of 

1,500 TEUs. It is expected that both 

vessels, under US flag, will be deployed 

in the Middle East feeder service 

Trouble again for Superspeed 1. 

new probLemS For SuperSpeed 1 

Color Line has been forced to reduce 

the number of passengers booked on 

their new ferry the SuperSpeed 1, Norwegian 

media report. The reason is that 

more passengers than there are seats 

have been booked on the vessel resulting 

in passengers having to spend the 

trip sitting on the floor. 

The problems for the vessel, which 

could not be delivered on time, this 

winter are thus continuing. 

kotka reached one miLLion tonS 

The Port of Kotka recorded a goods 

volume of more than one million tons 

in March. This is the first time that 

goods turnover in the port has exceeded 

one million tons in a single month. 

maritime safety 

laws turned down 

ssg-göteborg. The European Council 

turned down, by a broad majority, two 

directives concerning safety at sea. 

The flag state directive that seeks to 

make IMO (International Maritime Organization) 

flag state rules obligatory and the 

civil liability directive that aims to increase 

liability for shipowners and regulate compensation 

payments gained support from 

few member states during the Transport 

Council meeting on 7 April. 

The Slovenian EU presidency said 

that due to the weak support, there is no 

point in continuing the work on the EU 

Commission’s text. 

”The flag state directive was turned down 

because the Member States do not want to 

give the EU Commission and the EU more 

competence in this subject. They want to 

ssg-göteborg. Christer Schoug has been 

appointed by Royal Caribbean Cruises as 

vice president of newbuildings. 

Schoug is currently the managing director 

of Stena Ro-Ro and deputy managing 

director of Stena Rederi. 

The VP of newbuildings is a new post 

in the RCL organisation and Schoug will 

lead construction and design of new cru- 

handle this through IMO instead. The 

Member States say they will apply IMO`s 

voluntary flag state audit scheme and work 

within IMO to make it compulsory instead 

of making binding EU rules out of 

IMO’s flag state audit scheme as the EU 

Commission wants and the directive suggests”, 

says Christopher Frisk, the Swedish 

Shipowner’s Association’s representative in 

Brussels, to SSG. 

”CLD was turned down because the 

Member States do not see any added 

value in the proposal. In principle, it only 

duplicates existing IMO regulations and 

moreover introduces some additions that 

nobody wants. Instead, the Member States 

promised to ratify the 1996 protocol of the 

LLMC Convention and implement these 

regulations in full. 

Schoug to Royal Caribbean Cruises 

ssg-göteborg. 22 per cent of all dry 

bulk carriers in the current world orderbook 

have been ordered at shipyards that 

up til last year never had delivered a ship. 

The analyst company Worldyards estimates 

that the total dry bulk orderbook stands at 

211.7 million DWT, of which 48 million 

tons have been ordered at the new shipyards. 

In addition, tankers of 13 million 

DWT, are expected to be converted to dry 

ise vessels for all the 

RCL brands: Royal 

Caribbean International, 

Celebrity Cruises, 

Pullmantur, Azamara 

Cruises and CDF 

Croisières de France. 

Christer Schoug. 

The RCL group has a 

fleet of 37 vessels and seven on order. 

Every fifth bulker ordered at non-existing yard 

bulk carriers. The uncertainty regarding 

the new shipyard’s capacity and reliability 

in combination with the current financial 

turbulence, up to half of the orderbook 

is still seeking financing, triggers expectations 

that many ordered vessels will be significantly 

delayed or not delivered at all. 

According to estimates in the market, this 

could be the case for 20-30 per cent of the 

current orders. 

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6 SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • APRIL 18, 2008


The Birka Express. 

Finnlines extends time charter 

of birka cargo vessels 

ssg-åbo. Birka Cargo’s largest ro-ro vessels 

Birka Express (8,843 DWT), Birka Carrier 

(8,853 DWT) and Birka Trader (8,853 

DWT) will continue on their time charter 

with Finnlines until the end of 2012. 

ssg-ringkøbing. The grounding of the 

crude oil tanker Minerva Concert in the 

Hatter Barn Channel on May 14, 2007, was 

caused by lack of attention by the pilot, 

the captain, the second officer on duty and 

by the lack of communication between 

them on the voyage from Fredericia to 

Rotterdam via Grenå with 81,268 tons of 

crude oil on board. 

The pilot, who had a pilot-trainee attending, 

did not discuss the voyage plan with 

the captain when deciding to sail in the 

Hatter Barn Channel as the draft was 12.5 

The present charter has thus been extended 

four years. For the moment, Finnlines 

also has Birka Cargo’s smaller series of roro 

vessels Birka Transporter, Birka Exporter 

och Birka Shipper on time charter. 

man b&w paSSeS 60 miLLion japaneSe horSeS mark Japan’s Mitsui Engineering 

& Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. (MES) has delivered licence-made MAN B&W engines with a 

combined out-put of 60 million horsepowers. According to MAN B&W, this is a world 

record for a single brand. MES signed its first licence agreement with Burmeister & Wain 

in 1926. Today MES has a production capacity of five million horsepowers per year. 

Lack of attention caused 

oil tanker grounding 

metres. During the voyage the pilot and his 

trainee talked in Danish without telling the 

officer on watch about the change in the 

voyage plan. After some hours, the tanker 

ran aground just on the wrong side of buoy 

19. The pilot claimed that the ship’s gyro 

conpass had a deviation of +5°, but several 

expert teams investigating the instruments 

in the four days of the salvage operation 

did not discover any failures. 

The ship was lightered and sailed to a 

dry dock in Hamburg, where it stayed from 

late May to August 25, 2007. 

INTERIOR 

INSULATION 

VENTILATION 

PIPING 

ELECTRICAL 

SCANMARINE 

GROUP OF SWEDEN AB 

WWW.SCANMARINE.SE 

Bäringe 1B, Annexet 

SE-241 95 Billinge, Sweden 

NEWS REVIEW 

Phone: +46 (0)413-54 40 00 

Fax: +46 (0)413-54 41 10 

E-mail: scanmarine@scanmarine.se 

SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • APRIL 18, 2008 7

SEADRILL 

NEWS REVIEW 

The West Sirius. 

two driLLing rigS to SeadriLL 

Seadrill has taken delivery of two 

deepwater drilling rigs, the West Phoenix 

and the West Sirius, from Samsung 

Shipyard in South Korea and 

Jurong Shipyard in Singapore, respectively. 

Both units have secured long-term 

contracts. 

The West Sirius is contracted by 

Devon Energy Corporation for four 

years in the Gulf of Mexico while the 

West Phoenix has a three-year contract 

with Total Norge for deployment in 

the North Atlantic region. The drilling 

rigs have a water depth capability up to 

3,000 metres. 

uS carnivaL backS on FueL FeeS 

The Florida Attorney General has 

reached a settlement with six cruise 

lines over the imposition of a retroactively 

imposed fuel surcharge on cruise 

passengers. Carnival and its five subsidiary 

cruise lines have agreed to refund 

approximately USD 40 million to 

consumers nationwide who were charged 

the fuel surcharge after they had 

booked their cruises. Other affected 

cruise lines are Holland America, Princess, 

Costa, Cunard and Seabourne. 

HEMPASIL 

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HEMPEL 

www.hempel.dk 

50 plans to 

strenghten dutch 

maritime sector 

ssg-göteborg. The Dutch Cabinet 

has approved a policy letter filed by state 

secretary Tineke Huizingas, which aims to 

strengthen the country’s maritime sector. 

The letter includes some 50 concrete 

plans aimed at reducing environmental 

impact from shipping, improving maritime 

safety, increasing the competitiveness of 

the national shipping industry and promoting 

carreers in shipping. 

Among the proposals are environmentally 

differentiated port dues, funding for 

environmental courses in maritime education 

programs and measures to increase 

safety at sea where the target will be lowered 

from 25 accidents per year to 20. To 

lighten the administrative burden for com- 

panies, inspection authorities will increase 

co-operation. Inspections will be risk-based 

and shipowners who fullfil their obligations 

will be less inconvenienced by inspections. 

Some inspection tasks will be transferred 

to the market. 

The Dutch maritime sector employs 

27,000 people and has a direct value added 

of about EUR 1.6 billion per year. To 

improve this, the tonnage tax and rates for 

ship management will be lowered. 

The Dutch maritime sector is suffering 

from recruitment problems. Huizingas 

wants to see improved collaboration in 

nautical education and is prepared to offer 

subsidies for introductory work placements. 

new Service From grenå to turku The Port of Grenå will be connected with Turku 

in Finland via a direct liner service. Norwegian Nor Lines will call Grenå en route from 

Norway to Finland. The Danish broker Franck & Tobisen has identified the necessary 

conditions for the call at Grenå. 

Göteborg in global climate project 

ssg-göteborg. The port of Göteborg has 

joined forces with 13 of the world’s largest 

ports, including Rotterdam, in an initiative 

to reduce ship’s emissions and combat climate 

change. 

In July, the ports plan to sign a climate 

declaration and Göteborg will provide a 

part of the declaration concerning shore 

connections for electricity. 

According to the port company, shore 

ssg-åbo. The Bourbon Dolphin was built 

to all rules and regulations and the Norwegian 

commission has not proposed any 

changes in the current design regulations, 

says Ulstein Verft in its first comment on 

the report filed by the Royal Commission 

to the Norwegian government. 

Ulstein Verft claims that the vessel was 

exposed to stresses it was not designed for. 

connections for all vessels calling at the roro 

terminal would reduce CO2 emissions 

from shipping by ten per cent if the shoresupplied 

electricity was generated free of 

CO2 emissions. At the same time, emissions 

of SOx and NOx would decrease by 

95 per cent. 

Among the ports involved in the project 

are Shanghai, Rotterdam, Los Angeles, 

Dubai and Santos. 

Ulstein Verft comments Dolphin report 

According to the shipbuilder, the commission 

has carried out a thorough job and the 

report is extensive. Ulstein claims, however, 

that the shipyard has fulfilled all requirements 

on information and communication 

of stability criteria for the vessel. An 

approved stability manual was delivered 

and a load calculator for stability calculations 

was installed on the ship. 


Hempasil 58x58.indd 1 19-03-2008 11:42:50

Sævik turned down on 

aker yard egm 

ssg-göteborg. At an extraordinary general 

meeting, a majority of the shareholders 

in Aker Yards rejected the proposal by Per 

Sævik’s Havyard Invest to elect four new 

members and replace two standing members 

of the company board. Sævik controls 

ten per cent of the shares. Sævik was supported 

by about 35.8 million shares but 

a majority of 49.5 million shares voted 

against the proposal. South Korean shipbuilder 

STX controls a stake of around 

40 per cent of the shares. This is currently 

under investigation by the EU competition 

authority and the shipbuilder’s voting right 

was initially suspended pending the EU 

decision. The suspension was, however, 

lifted provided that STX voted against the 

proposed reshuffle of the board. 

Melchiors gets new Brussels job 

ssg-ringkøbing.Carsten Melchiors, the 

former Secretary General of Bimco, was 

not unemployed for a long time. 

Carsten Melchiors has now been appointed 

as the permanent representative in the 

European Union for the International 

Association of Classification Societies 

(IACS). 

IACS will shortly open an office in 

Brussels, where Melchiors will be based in 

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Swedish SSPA and three other European 

research organisations support in 

general the original commissions theory 

on how the Estonia sank. Through 

model testing and computer simulations 

the researchers have been able 

to confirm how the Estonia could list, 

turn up side down and eventually sink 

in the manner commission said it did. 

The final report will be published 5 

May. 

rtL oFFer car tranSit via riga 

Russian Transport Lines (RTL) will 

remove the bottleneck for the transit 

of cars to Russia by using Riga, the 

Latvian business newspaper Bizness & 

Baltija writes. 

The Russian company has invested 

EUR 800,000 in its terminal RTL Euro 

on seven hectares of land in Freeport 

of Riga and will invest further EUR 1 

million in order to expand the terminal 

by an additional 10 hectares, which will 

give it an annual capacity of 100,000 

cars. 

Chris-Marine ® Head Offi ce 

and Subsidiaries 

NEWS REVIEW 

SWEDEN 

Chris-Marine AB 

Tel: +46 - 40 671 2600 

Fax: +46 - 40 671 2699 

info@chris-marine.com 

NORWAY 

Chris-Marine Norge A/S 

Tel: +47 - 3279 8590 

Fax: +47 - 3279 8509 

steinar.olsgard@chris-marine.com 

SINGAPORE 

Chris-Marine (S) Pte. Ltd. 

Tel: +65 - 6268 8611 

Fax: +65 - 6264 3932 

chrism@chris-marine.com.sg 

P.R. OF CHINA 

Chris-Marine Rep Offi ce Shanghai 

Tel: +86 - 21 5465 3756 

Fax: +86 - 21 6415 2081 

lanny.chen@chris-marine.com 

RUSSIA 

Chris-Marine Rep Offi ce St. Petersburg 

Tel: +7 - 812 3292 599 

Fax: +7 - 812 3292 597 

andrey.egerev@chris-marine.com 

INDIA 

Chris-Marine Rep Offi ce India 

Tel: +91 - 712 645 1155 

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GREECE 

CM Hellas Ltd. 

Tel: +30 - 210 4826 060 

costas.sohoritis@chris-marine.com 


A question of ownership 

Finnish shipbuilding has made headlines 

during the last months. Unfortunately 

the interest of the press 

has not concerned the excellent ships 

delivered – it has mainly focused on the 

newbuildings not handed over in time. 

Aker Yards presented a poor result for 

2007 and states that the losses have mainly 

been generated by ferries built in Finland. 

Many of the deliveries have been seriously 

delayed due to different problems. 

According to Aker Yards the operations in 

Finland are suffering from a high pressure 

on subcontractors: “A stretched suppliers’ 

market causes delays, and a number of 

deliveries from suppliers are still suffering 

from unacceptable quality,” they state. 

Building a technically advanced ship is 

a complex chain of subprojects, which are 

managed by a large number of different 

companies. The trick is to manage such a 

conglomerate of projects. In the end, the 

shipyard alone is responsible for the ship 

owner receiving exactly the ship ordered 

at the right time. Integrating external 

workforce in the shipbuilding process is 

indeed an extremely demanding task to 

administrate, and in this field the Finnish 

shipyards have probably come further 

than anybody else in the world. 

Today panicking is the typical reaction 

if there is even a slight disturbance in the 

financial performance of a company. Losses 

are simply unacceptable to the share 

holders in all branches. 

The losses generated by Aker Yards 

Finnish shipyards will not be the last of 

their kind in shipbuilding. Investors in 

shipbuilding simply have to live with the 

fact that the market goes up and down 

and that the fierce competition sometimes 

makes it necessary to take orders at small 

margins. 

Aker Yards is one of the leading builders 

of large cruise vessels in the world 

– perhaps the best of the best. Regarding 

both hardware and human resources, Aker 

Yards’ Finnish shipyards form the core of 

the most advanced shipbuilding cluster 

in the world regarding large cruise vessels. 

The shipyard in Turku specializes in 

building Post-Panamax cruise vessels. The 

project management and building of such 

gigantic ships is the ultimate challenge 

within shipbuilding and Aker Yards has 

done excellent so far. As the builder of the 

largest cruise vessels, the Turku shipyard 

is one of the most efficient and modern 

plants in the whole world. 

Finland also has a unique network of 

suppliers of the most prestigious components 

and systems. Finally, Finland has 

probably the leading know-how not only 

in building, but also in designing ultralarge 

cruise ships. 

Still, something has of course to be 

done about the losses. Perhaps it is not 

optimal to maintain three separately located 

shipbuilding sites? Perhaps the shipyards 

and the subcontractors should have 

even closer relations, leading to creative 

ideas how to mutually master the increasing 

costs? Perhaps they do not really 

understand the simple fact that they both 

need each other to exist in the long run? 

A crucial question is if the current situation 

is related to the shipbuilding process 

at all. What if this is an ownership-related 

issue? Maybe the current ownership structure 

is not at all ideal for a shipyard? 

In October last year, the Korean shipbuilding 

group STX acquired a 39.2 per 

cent ownership stake in Aker Yards. The 

EU competition authorities are told to be 

currently evaluating the acquisition of the 

shares. 

The Koreans have still not revealed 

their intentions with this deal. However, 

it has been interpreted as a shortcut into 

the cruise ship market and this has created 

concern on high levels in Europe. Is this 

the final countdown for the crown jewel 

of European shipbuilding, the building of 

cruise ships? 

Indeed, it is alarming if the Korean shipbuilding 

industry slips into the last European 

bastion of shipbuilding through the 

back door. But what are their real intentions? 

Either they believe that it is possible 

to continue with shipbuilding in Finland 

or they want to drain the know-how and 

move it to their own country. 

Mr Martin Saarikangas, the man who 

soon twenty years ago saved the Finnish 

shipbuilding industry, has declared to the 

press that there would now be a golden 

pär-henrik sjöström 

Editor, Finland 

Phone: +358 2 242 62 50, 

E-mail: par-henrik@shipgaz.com 

EDITORIAL 

opportunity for Finnish investors to regain 

control over the shipyards in Finland. 

However, the interest for shipbuilding 

seems to be non-existent among Finnish 

investors. Why do we not believe in Finnish 

shipbuilding in Finland if the investors 

in Korea believe in it? 

It is possible that the most serious threat 

to Finnish shipbuilding is not at all the 

Koreans, but the lack of a genuine interest 

in building ships among its owners. 

It is of utmost importance that the 

building of high-tech vessels like cruise 

ships stays in Finland. But it cannot be 

achieved by government decrees about 

forced marriages between the shipyards in 

Finland, France and Italy. 

The current shipyards of Aker Yards 

Cruise & Ferries unit have the critical mass 

and they definitively have the know-how 

needed to continue to stand upon their 

own feet. 

They also have a world-wide reputation 

as reliable and safe partners to cooperate 

with. The recent difficulties regarding 

ferries have changed nothing of this. The 

delivery times of the cruise vessels have 

not been delayed at all. The attitude of the 

Finnish shipbuilders is still the same – the 

goal is always to deliver a ship fulfilling all 

specifications, including the delivery time. 

There will be a stable demand for new 

cruise ships also in the future. A significant 

part of these vessels will be built in 

Finland. Hopefully the owners of Aker 

Yards understand the true value of their 

Finnish assets instead of just focusing at 

the latest financial report. 


JöRGEN SPRåNG 

Long hours on watch 

The working hours for masters and watch keeping officers on small 

vessels have escalated and frequently exceed 91 hours per week. 

Research student and Captain Fredrik Hjorth at Kalmar Merchant Marine 

Academy has studied how safety at sea is affected by the working 

conditions on board. 

The study has been performed on eleven 

smaller vessels flying various flags operating 

along the coast in the Baltic Sea. The 

study is part of a larger safety management 

research project and the objective was to 

investigate tasks, rest and working hours on 

vessels with only two navigational officers 

on board. Fredrik Hjorth has interviewed 

masters, officers and other crew members 

as well as personnel managers, designated 

persons and representatives for the administration 

and the union. 

“It is important to get a comprehensive 

picture. A ship can be seen as a sociotechnical 

system, where maritime safety 

and the working environment are depend- 

ent on all sides of the system working 

together”, says Fredrik Hjorth. 

“When needed, there must be back-up 

available from colleagues on board or from 

the land organization. Otherwise it doesn’t 

matter how well educated and trained you 

are.” 

The right crew 

The social interaction and well-being is 

very important on board any ship and perhaps 

even more so on smaller vessels with 

restricted space for recreation and small 

public rooms. On a ship with only five to 

seven people it is vital that you find the 

right crew members. 

“It is a question of both getting the job 

done and ensure the well-being on board. 

With a small crew there is no room for 

on-the-job training. Everybody must have 

certain experience and more or less know 

what to do from day one. At the same 

time it is important that the crew function 

together socially.” 

Furthermore, Fredrik Hjorth has studied 

accident reports and compared the journals 

for working hours with the log books 

on board the visited ships. 

In 2004 the Marine Accident Investigation 

Branch (MAIB) investigated 652 accidents 

on vessels with only two navigational 

officers. MAIB came to the conclusion that 


Seen to the number of ABs 

on board and the tasks 

they have to perform, 

we wouldn’t even get food 

if they had to stand 

watch at night. 

the workload on the crew is so heavy that 

it is difficult for them to fulfil their duties 

and still get enough rest and that this often 

leads to accidents. 

Swedish, Dutch and Japanese studies 

also point to the fact that most collisions 

and groundings that occur at night are due 

to fatigued operators, often in combination 

with lack of sufficient lookout. 

Research shows that it is difficult for the 

officers to recuperate on board and that 

this might lead to a chronic state of fatigue 

that can have adverse effects on health and 

well-being. 

But the small number of crew also 

implies other safety aspects than fatigue. A 

lot of work on board has to be carried out 

single-handed, sometimes in the dark and 

on a slippery deck, where no one can see if 

you get injured or fall overboard. 

No lookouts 

Another aspect is the lack of proper lookout. 

According to the STCW, watch keeping 

is to be done with two persons on the 

bridge. Exceptions can be and frequently 

are made for certain circumstances but 

only in daylight. 

However, none of the participating ships 

in the study had a lookout to accompany 

the officer on watch at night. A decision 

enforced by the necessity, but also the will 

of the crew, to operate the ship with a small 

crew and at the same time keep the vessel 

in good shape. In the report, a master is 

quoted: 

“Seen to the number of ABs on board 

and the tasks they have to perform, we 

wouldn’t even get food if they had to stand 

watch at night.” 

The many working hours often result 

in violations of the regulations regarding 

work-time and rest period. Fredrik Hjorth 

says that the crew often feel that they have 

to adjust their working time records in 

order to comply with the regulations and 

quotes an officer as saying: 

“I tried to fill in my real working hours 

once, but the master lashed out and told 

me that he would never sign that since it 

did not comply with the regulations. Since 

then I never write anything else than cutand-dried 

records.” 

Another example from the report is 

a comparison between the records and 

the ship’s log book indicating that only 

two persons were working, when the ship 

moored in port. The rest of the crew were 

apparently sleeping. 

Supposedly, this adjustment of work 

hour records is known amongst the Administrations, 

but they choose not to act on it. 

Paperwork 

A growing part of the workload in contemporary 

shipping is administrative work. 

A task that the officer on watch is not 

allowed to do during watch, according to 

regulations. 

“ISM, ISPS, operational administration 

and environmental issues like garbage handling, 

all involve a lot of paper work and 

somebody must take care of it”, says Fredrik 

Hjorth. 

The remaining question is when and by 

whom. If all the administrative duties are 

to be performed off the normal watch, it 

would mean an average of 1–2 hour longer 

days, naturally with an equally shorter time 

for sleep. 

Solutions suggested in the report include 

increasing the number of crew on board 

or moving tasks from the ship to the land 

organisation. 

When the results were presented, the 

report got a lot of attention in the media 

from various stakeholders. The media light 

was largely on the touching up of the working 

hour records and the seafarers, feeling 

that this is done with the tacit acceptance 

of the authorities. 

The author of the report thinks the limelight 

should be pointed elsewhere; 

“The focus should really be on the crew 

and the pressure they take upon themselves 

in order to make everything work and their 

professional pride and will to do a good 

job.” 

cecilia österman 


BENT MIkkELSEN 

The first 

China ro-ro 

to DFDS 

The Tor Corona is the first of four sisters going to DFDS Tor Line. 

The Tor Corona is the very first 

Chinese ro-ro vessel in the DFDS 

Tor Line fleet, but it was ordered 

and owned by an experienced ro-ro 

provider: the London-based Norbulk 

Shipping. 

The company, which has a Scandinavian 

background, has previously built six roros 

in China for Finnlines charter. The 

Tor Corona is the first of four units that 

will sail for DFDS Tor Line on long-term 

timecharter. The business with Norbulk 

Shipping has been extended to a purchase 

of two of the China ro-ros, the Finnmaster 

and the Finnreel. The other four units from 

the first series have been sold to the charter 

Finnlines, leaving Norbulk shipping with 

only the Tor Corona and its sister the Tor 

Hafnia (delivery in March 2008) and the 

two remaining sisters, which are due for 

delivery in August and October this year, 

in the fleet. 

“This, however, eases up on the manning 


Two Swedish captains have command of Tor 

Corona. Here is Eibert Fransson. 

situation. It means that we can man the new 

ships much more easily, as it is so tough to 

attract new crew members like in the rest 

of the shipping community”, explains captain 

Eibert Fransson, Tor Corona. 

Scottish manning 

The manning and technical management 

of the Tor Corona are handled by the Scottish 

division of Norbulk Shipping. 

The inauguration of the Tor Corona is a 

Tor CoroNa 

Type: ro-ro 

Builder: Jinling Shipyard, Nanjing 

owner: Seatreasure Ltd, London (Norbulk 

Shipping, Glasgow) 

Newbuilding no. 05-0402 

Class: Lloyds + 100A1, ro-ro, Ice Class 1A, 

Solas II p. 54 + LMC, NAV1, UMS,*IWS, SCM. 

IMo no. 9357597 

Loa 187.1 m 

Lpp 169.8 m 

Width 26.5 m 

Draft 6.9 m 

Depth to weather deck 21.6 m 

GT 25,654 

NT 7,696 

DWT 11,322 

Drivers 12 

Lane metres 3,455 

Tank top 470 m 

Main deck 1,043 m 

Upper deck 1,168 m 

Top deck 774 m 

Reefer plugs 75 

Machinery: 

Main engines 2 MAN type L48/60 

kW 9,450 

Speed 20.0 knots 

Bow thruster 2x1,100 kW 


eal boost to the Baltic Bridge service running 

from Klaipeda in Lithuania to Copenhagen 

and Fredericia, calling twice weekly. 

The Tor Corona calls Copenhagen on the 

way from Klaipeda to Fredericia and again 

on the leg from Fredericia to Klaipeda. The 

capacity is up about 40 per cent compared 

to the previous vessels on the service. 

This is by far the easiest 

way to handle trailers 

and lorries on board. 

“It is a clear signal to the market that 

DFDS Tor Line will serve all our customers 

in the best possible way”, says Christian V. 

Petersen, head of DFDS Tor Line’s office 

in Fredericia. 

The Baltic Bridge is a highly interesting 

service with a lot of potential for the 

future, but also a service working with a 

volatile market. The Russian market is still 

the biggest for the ro-ro service and political 

changes and legal steps are still kind 

of dark horses in the background for the 

exporter’s everyday work in transport and 

manufacturing. 

Four decks 

Tor Corona is a four-deck ro-ro vessel with 

direct access to all decks. There is no elevator, 

but it is possible to drive directly to 

the tank top deck, the main deck and on a 

special ramp to the weather deck and again 

from there to the upper deck. 

“This is by far the easiest way to handle 

trailers and lorries on board”, says captain 

Eibert Fransson. “Elevators are extremely 

slow, not that time is a factor on this service, 

but driving is much easier.” 

The quay access goes via two ramps. 

There is a main ramp to the main deck and 

a smaller ramp to the weather deck. On the 

tank top deck and the main deck the height 

allows cargo of up to 5.5 metres, while 

it is 4.7 and 4.9 on the two upper decks. 

Naturally the weather deck will provide 

an unlimited height, but the access to the 

deck only allows 4.9 metres. 

The total capacity of the ship is 3,455 

lane metres, which equals 230 trailers, each 

14 metres long. The vessel is not fitted 

for container handling, except for those 

onboard trailers or mafis. 

The driveways on the Tor Corona are the 

first to be equipped with a special asphalt 




The ramps aft give access to the main deck and the second deck. 

The special asphalt cover on the ramps prevents the lorries from skidding. 

The spacious main deck. 



The Tor Corona’s top deck. 

to prevent vehicles from skidding on the 

ramps. 

“The asphalt is something new instead 

of the previous steel net, which was welded 

on. The steel net had a limited time 

before it was worn out, but as yet we have 

no experience of this asphalt” says Eibert 

Fransson. 

China 

The Tor Corona is a product of the Chinese 

shipyard Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing, 

which delivered the previous six ro-ros for 

Norbulk. 

“I think they have done a very fine job. 

The Chinese have learned a lot from the 

last couple of years building ships for foreign 

accounts”, says Eibert Fransson. 

“Naturally there are some smaller details 

that aren’t really good, but it’s not on vital 

parts of the ship. In our mess room we have 

problems with chairs and tables. The very 

nice handmade chairs are six centimetres 

too low and our table is four centimetres 

too high, which gives a rather odd position 

for eating. But this is something that can 

be fixed rather easily by a local carpenter”, 

he adds. 

The standard of the accommodation as 

well as the passenger department is high 

with handmade leather furniture and 

handmade wooden cabinets. The ship has 

a drivers’ department with twelve single 

cabins with private bath and toilet. Also 


each cabin is equipped with a refrigerator. 

The passenger department also has its own 

mess room and dayroom with a large TV 

screen for the entertainment of the drivers 

on the crossing. The majority of the passengers 

on board are truck drivers from 

Lithuania and the Baltic states. 

The Tor Corona is manned with a Swedish 

captain and Latvian crew (at present 17 

persons) ranging from the Chief Engineer 

to the ABs hired for lashing the trailers 

on board (which is part of the time charter). 

The crew is compiled by taking some 

of the crew members from the Finnlines 

ships, which then are complemented with 

some new members of the crew. 

“I think it has gone smoothly. Some of 

the faces are familiar and others I’m starting 

to learn”, explains captain Eibert Fransson. 

Engine room 

The ship is powered by two MAN engines 

with an output of 9,450 kW, giving the 

ship a maximum speed of 20 knots, which 

is only needed on one of the weekly crossings. 

The other crossing is usually done 

at a lower and more fuel economical 

speed. At 20 knots the ship burns 75 tons 

of heavy fuel, while the consumption is 

reduced to only 31 tons at a speed of 15 

knots. 

The engine room is spacious with a lot 

of room for repair tasks and with good 

workshop facilities. The auxiliary engines 

in a separate, specially insulated space gives 

a very healthy engine room while lying in 

Fredericia from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. with the 

main engines stopped. 

The ship is built to Lloyd’s Ice Class 1A 

and is able to sail the Baltic area in winter 

time, even though Klaipeda is mentioned 

as the only guaranteed ice free port in the 

Baltic area. 

bent mikkelsen 

Even though the Tor Corona is built in China, the components are mainly European. 


Boks Oslo 

First class cars deserve 

first class travel conditions. 

A VOYAGE on one of our ships will be for reasons of necessity, not for pleasure. 

Even so, we still do everything within our power to ensure a comfortable 

passage for all concerned. 

For us, the cars we carry are not simply vehicles. Each one is someone’s brand 

new car. That’s our attitude, and that’s the way the crews on our ships have 

been trained to think. 

Which is why the vehicles we carry on our ships are treated more like 

passengers than cars. And with us, everyone travels first class. 

WORLDWIDE RO/RO THE FLEXIBLE WAY 

www.hoegh.com

JoACHIm SJöSTRöm 

Ro-Ro TECHNoLoGY 

Bore’s ro-ro vessel Estraden in a gale on the North Sea. Bore is one of the pioneers within ro-ro shipping and operates 

a fleet of 22 ships, including ro-ro vessels, car carriers, dry cargo vessels and an ice strengthened bulk carrier. 

Bore – New business areas 

complementing ro-ro 

When acquiring Bror Husell Chartering 

and Engship, the Finnish shipping 

company Bore was primarily looking 

for expansion in the ro-ro sector. As an 

extra bonus Bore got two interesting 

new business areas. 

Entering the fast growing market for car 

shipments was the primary objective 

when the Finnish shipping company Bore 

acquired the two shipping companies 

Bror Husell Chartering Ltd and Rederi Ab 

Engship in 2005 and 2006 respectively. 

Bror Husell Chartering had recently 

carried out a conversion of its ro-ro vessel 

Transgard, now renamed Auto Baltic, into 

a car carrier and entered into a long-term 

charter with UECC. Rederi Ab Engship 

had similar plans for its two sister vessels 

Heralden (now Auto Bay) and Serenaden 

(Auto Bank), and these plans were also 

later carried through by Bore. 

“Already before the acquisitions of 

Bror Husell Chartering and Engship we 

had been in contact with the UECC 

about car shipments, but at that time we 

lacked suitable vessels,” Thomas Franck, 

Senior Executive Vice President of Bore, 

explains. 

Bore is more than a 100-year-old shipping 

company and it is a part of the family-owned 

Rettig Group. At the end of the 

1970’s Bore decided to concentrate on 


o-ro shipping and closed down its other 

shipping activities, including one third 

in the Silja Line ferry company. Bore was 

the first shipping company in Finland to 

order a ro-ro vessel in the mid 1960’s, 

which makes Bore one of the ro-ro pioneers 

also in a European perspective. 

Today Bore is one of Finland’s largest 

privately-owned shipping companies, 

with a fleet of 22 vessels. 

New areas 

The acquisition of the Åland-based shipping 

company Bror Husell Chartering Ltd 

included not only two ro-ro vessels but 

also a business area called Contracts of 

Affreightment (CoA). 

We prefer to call 

the small container vessels 

multi-purpose vessels … 

“We did not have any experience at all 

of contract shipments with conventional 

cargo vessels, but we became interested 

in this segment as Bror Husell Chartering’s 

former Managing Director Jhonny 

Husell continued to lead this unit in our 

employment as our Executive Vice President 

Commercial,” Mr Franck says. “It is 

about industrial shipping, which generates 

much closer customer relations than when 

operating as a TC-actor, so we decided to 

go for it.” 

Rederi Ab Engship added further two 

new segments to Bore – small container 

feeder vessels and bulk shipments. 

“We prefer to call the small container 

vessels multi-purpose vessels as they are 

also employed in other types of traffic,” 

Mr Franck clarifies. “Indeed, we had been 

active in container shipping for three years 

through our company RML, but these vessels 

were sold before the company expanded.” 

Bore came into the container business 

when there was a weak market for ro-ro 

shipping at the beginning of the millennium. 

The intention was to expand within 

the container segment, but the booming 

traffic on the Baltic Sea led to strongly 

increasing newbuilding prices, and the 

intended order was never carried through. 

Bore sold its container vessels and acquired 

the two shipping companies instead. 

“Then suddenly we were involved in sev- 

PäR-HENRIk SJöSTRöm 

PäR-HENRIk SJöSTRöm 

Thomas Franck, Senior Executive Vice President of Bore, has launched a tonnage renewal 

program within the shipping company. He thinks that it is crucial to maintain a critical mass in 

the fleet. 

originally built for Rederi Ab Engship in 1997, Bore’s ro-ro vessel Heralden was converted into 

the car carrier Auto Bay in China in 2007. She is on long term charter to UECC. 

eral new market segments, and we had to 

decide what to do with them,” Mr Franck 

explains. 

Close relations 

The least interesting of them was the container 

business. Bore knew it quite well and 

the vessels were rather small. The increase 

of container feeder tonnage in the Baltic 

Sea increased the competition and kept the 

freight rates low. 

“Our small container vessels were not 

competitive enough and last autumn we 


sold two of them. We bought two newer 

dry cargo vessels for the CoA-business 

instead. We see growth potential within 

this segment, and we want to expand 

together with our customers,” Mr Franck 

says. 

He says that the close customer relations 

within CoA make it possible to develop 

the business in a different way than when 

operating on a time charter basis. 

“We are large enough to be able to offer 

our partners a variety of solutions. We 

are for example investigating the possible 




Bore’s dry cargo vessels employed in the contract trade (CoA) are operated from the office in 

mariehamn. The Nordgard is one of the four “compass-vessels” in the fleet, here pictured in 

the kiel Canal on a voyage from Finland with a deck cargo of sawn wood. 

advantages of replacing lo-lo with ro-ro to 

gain more optimised transport solutions 

for some of our customers in the CoA segment.” 

Mr Franck stresses the importance of a 

constantly ongoing renewal process of the 

fleet. Modern and competitive vessels are 

a precondition for being able to offer the 

right transport solutions to the customer. 

“The average age of the vessels in our 

fleet is now about 15 years. By replacing 

older vessels with newbuildings or newer 

second-hand vessels the age is going to 

decrease further.” 

A renewal of the fleet by simply selling 

out older vessels without replacing them is 

not in the line with Bore’s business idea. 

New situation 

The philosophy advocated by Mr Franck is 

to maintain a critical mass with a fleet of at 

least 20 vessels. 

This is a huge difference compared with 

the situation before the acquisitions of 

Bror Husell Chartering and Engship when 

Bore had just four ro-ro vessels. 

“Now we are active in many sectors but 

primarily focusing on ro-ro, car shipments 

and CoA. The bulk segment is also interesting 

for us as there is a limited supply of 

ice-strengthened tonnage. We have investigated 

the possibilities to order newbuildings 

or buy second-hand vessels, but due to 

the current price situation we have decided 

to renew the tank top on our bulk carrier 

Bravaden and receive a 30-year-classing for 

life extension.” 


e 

� Shipowners 

� Modern RoRo-projects 

� In-House-Management 

Dag Engström Rederi AB 

PO Box 115 

SE 453 23 Lysekil Sweden 

E-mail: dag@engstromshipping.se 

Tfn +46 523 18940 

Fax +46 523 14943 


SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • XXXXX XX, 2008 21 

Pär-Henrik SjöStröm 

Ro-ro 

Technology 

editor: Pär-Henrik Sjöström 

Growing demand for an ageing fleet 22 

ro-ro rules in Scandinavian short sea shipping 26 

Global ro-ro: Growing in niches 30 

Göteborg – the capital of ro-ro 32 

Larger and faster ships in the future 36 

ACL on the go with the fourth generation 40 

Bore + Conro = roFlex 44 

Polsteam expands on ferry tonnage 46 

FSG stands firm as ro-ro market gets tougher 48 

Seatruck orders four Flensburger ro-ros 52 

misana and misida: tailor-made but still flexible 54 

esbjerg – working ro-ro since the bacon revolution 58 

Looking for the perfect time to order 60 

Shortsea XML focusing the main obstacles 64 

nordic Ferry Service takes over more services 66 

Sandwich plate on kapella car deck 70

RO-RO TECHNOLOGY 

Growing demand 

for an ageing fl eet 

Growing demand, an ageing fl eet and the entry of private equity investors 

are signs indicating a positive future for the ro-ro industry and an accelerated 

newbuilding activity as soon as opportunities arrive, that is when there are 

shipyard slots available at affordable costs. 

2007 became a year when ro-ro owners 

experienced continuously rising time-charter 

rates. This was true also for the smaller 

ro-ros of less than 1,200 lane metres. 

According to shipbrokers BRS in Paris, 

the average time charter rate for a 900-lane 

metre, 14-knots ro-ro reached around EUR 

6,500 per day last year, while the average 

rate for the largest vessels, above 3,000 

lane metres and with a speed of 21 knots, 

reached circa EUR 19,500 per day. 

Rates are at historically high levels and 

so are ship prices, which can be seen in 

the table supplied by shipbrokers Brax 

Shipping in Göteborg. The activity on the 

second-hand market was intense for the second 

consecutive year with 44 sale and purchase 

deals registered in 2007, or 40 per cent 

up on 2006. According to BRS, there are 

mainly two causes behind this activity; the 

high newbuilding prices and the late delivery 

times for those vessels already ordered. 

ageing fl eet 

The ro-ro fl eet is ageing. After the fi rst years 

of the 1980s, there was a sharp drop in 

newbuilding orders, and new ordering did 

not gather speed again until the middle of 

the 1990s. BRS statistics show that 33 per 

cent of the existing fl eet of 557 vessels will 

be 30 years or older by the end of 2009. 

A glance at the current order book shows 

that owners are focusing at larger units, 

which is not surprising bearing in mind 

the current newbuilding prices, and there 

are very few orders for vessels of less than 

1,800 lane metres. 

The current upswing in rates for smaller 

vessels is likely caused by the general 

increase in demand and the lack of supply 

of larger units. The few orders for small roros 

show that this segment in the long run 

faces extinction, with the exception for tailor-made 

vessels built for routes where port 

capacities and fairways puts restrictions on 

vessels sizes. 

With few exceptions, as Epic Shipping’s 

orders last year for three ro-paxes and six 

ro-ros, the current order book consists of 

vessels ordered by liner operators. 

consolidation 

Last year was a year of consolidation in the 

ro-ro industry. In Northern/North-western 

Europe, Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö took 

control of Birka Line, Cobelfret acquired 

Ferryways and a consortia bought Scandlines. 

In the latter deal, a new type of 

player emerged in the ro-ro market as the 

private equity groups Allianz Capital Partners 

and 3i Group bought 40 per cent each 

of the former Danish/German state-owned 

ferry operator, with the remaining 20 per 

cent acquired by Deutsche Seereederei. 

Other private equity players entering the 

ro-ro market were Kohlberg Kravis Roberts 


JOACHIM SJÖSTRÖM 

& Co and Marfi n Investment Group. 

The interest in ro-ro from these groups 

indicates a positive outlook for the industry. 

Demand is growing, but this has to be 

met by increased capacity at the same time 

as the replacement need in an ageing fl eet 

is growing. BRS warns that if newbuilding 

prices do not fall or charter rates increase 

substantially there might be a critical 

shortage of mid-sized tonnage. This could

threaten the existence and development of 

routes and even lead to changes to alternative 

transport modes. 

With the exception of ro-ro specialist 

shipyards as Flensburger Schiffbau, J. J. Sietas, 

Aker Yards and Jinling, the interest for 

building ro-ros has been lukewarm in the 

shipbuilding industry. 

A potential ordering spree may also lead 

to an increased interest for scrapping and 

recycling of old ro-ro vessels, a business 

that has been rather rare in recent history. 

”We know that this is coming, the question 

is when”, says Martin Kärrhage at Brax 

Shipping. 

Intense ordering 

2007 was an intense ordering year in the 

car carrier business. According to shipbrokers 

Plateau 120 PCTS were ordered, up by 


80 compared to 2006. The current order 

book stands at 50 per cent of the existing 

fl eet. The fl eet grew by 10 per cent last 

year, with demand growing by 11–12 per 

cent. Plateau estimates that the coming two 

years will see capacity increases by 13 per 

cent and 16 per cent respectively. 

rolf p nilsson 

Tables on ro-ro orders and S&P on next page > 



ro-ro on orDer 

lm no. of vessels Yard owner price/vessel Delivery date 

500 2 Singapore Techno Hoegh and Louis Dreyfus May 08–Dec 08 

525 2 Bharati Sea-Cargo MUSD 14.4 Jan 08–Feb 08 

525 2 Bharati Nor Lines AS MUSD 14.4 Jun 08–Oct 08 

690 6 Larsen & Toubro RollDock MUSD 24.5 Dec 07–May 10 

1,140 2 Bharati Sea-Cargo MUSD 21.7 09 

1,290 1 Khersonskyi Reserved Capital Ent Corp 07 

1,830 4 Ast. Huelva Seatruck Ferries MEUR 30.0 Dec 07–Oct 08 

2,150 1 J. J. Sietas Godby Shipping Dec 07–Mar 08 

2,200 5 Hyundai Mipo Grimaldi Group MEUR 50.0 Mar 10–11 

2,604 4 Flensburger Cobelfret Dec 08–July 09 

2,900 2 Flensburger Bore Shipowners MEUR 50.0 May 11–Aug 11 

2,907 2 Flensburger Cobelfret Nov 10–Feb 11 

2,963 2 Szczecisnka Spliethoff MUSD 50.0 Apr 08–aug 08 

2,963 2 Szczecisnka Spliethoff Feb 09–july 09 

3,178 2 Jinling Shipyard Macoma Shipping MUSD 50.0 Dec 07–Mar 08 

3,178 2 Jinling Shipyard Macoma Shipping Aug 08–Oct 08 

3,245 6 Jinling Shipyard Finnlines MEUR 40.0 10–11 

3,500 3 Navantia Acciano Transmed. Nov 08–May 10 

3,663 6 Odense Epic Shipping Apr 09–Apr 10 

3,726 2 Flensburger UN Ro-Ro MEUR 56.0 Sep 08–Dec 08 

3,735 2 Flensburger UN Ro-Ro Mar 09–July 10 

3,900 6 Hyundai Mipo Grimaldi Group Feb 10–11 

4,000 7 Uljanik Grimaldi Group MUSD 70.0 Aug 08–10 

Some recent ro-ro Sale & purchaSe 

Source: Brax Shipping 

lm name owner new owner price Date 

360 Condock I Navcon Shipping Glenn Defence Marine Feb 08 

475 Kalliroi Pilot Shipping Undisclosed buyers Apr 08 

600 Rotorua Ruby Maritime Atlantic Transport Nav Apr 08 

600 Atlantic Trader Ivan Shipping MUSD 10.7 Mar 08 

800 Lygra Sand Shipping Lithuanian buyer MEUR 2.5 Mar 08 

870 Cimarron Southern Star Shipping Apr 08 

900 Caribbean Dignity Tualo Shipping Levantia Trasporti MEUR 6.0 Feb 08 

1,030 Marin Attica Holding Marfret MEUR 8.5 Feb 08 

1,057 Challenge Attica Holdings Seatruck ferries MEUR 17.4 Feb 08 

1,184 Sea Angel Mediterranean CC Undisclosed buyers Apr 08 

1,200 Esprit Doil Steamship Grendi MUSD 5.5 Mar 08 

1,212 Nordia Attica Holding Marfret MEUR 10.3 Apr 08 

1,325 Humber Way RoRoCo Dutch byers MEUR 2.0 Feb 08 

1,057 Shield Attica Holding Seatruck Ferries MEUR 17.4 Feb 08 

1,497 Andalucia Express Oldenburg Portugiesische Sun Marine Feb 08 

1,272 Merchant Bravery & Merchant Brilliant ADG Shipmanagement Phonix Logistics Jan 08 

1,272 Merchant Brilliant ADG Shipmanagement Phonix Logistics Jan 08 

1,650 Sikkeborg Dannebrog rederi Hellenic Seaways Nov 07 

1,810 Global Africa Global Transporte Nordana MUSD 10.0 Jan 07 

1,891 Finnhawk & Finnkraft Macoma Shipping Finnlines Apr 08 

1,950 El Greco Acciona Transmediterranea P&O Ferries MEUR 54.0 Sep 07 

2,389 Repubblica Di Genova Grimaldi Group Undisclosed buyers MEUR 13.5 Feb 08 

2,389 Repubblica Di Genova Insurers Mar 08 

2,681 Finnmill & Finnpulp Macoma Shipping Finnlines Apr 08 

3,000 Carmania Express Carmania Shipping Grimaldi MUSD 13.7 Sep 07 

3,058 Lubeck Link & Malmö Link Finnlines EU buyers MEUR 15.0 Jun 07 

Source: Brax Shipping 


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Ro-ro rules 

in Scandinavian 

short sea shipping 

A considerable part of the cargo 

shipments between Scandinavia 

and the rest of Northern Europe are 

handled with ro-ro ships of various 

types. 

The lion’s share of the general cargo transported 

at sea between the North European 

countries is carried on ro-ro vessels and 

ferries. In short sea traffic the flexibility of 

the road trailer and the lorry has proved to 

be the ideal solution for especially highvalued 

goods. Export products such as forest 

products and paper are also to a great 

extent carried on ro-ro vessels. 

In the short sea segment ro-ro shipments 

have maintained their strong position 

despite the expansion of the container 

traffic. In Northern European short sea 

shipping the container is indeed widely 

in use, but this traffic is to a great extent 

feeder traffic from and to the large ports 

with direct liner connections to overseas 

destinations. 

Passengers and cargo 

Car carriers, ro-pax ships, ferries and ro-ro 

vessels – there are several different types of 

vessels utilising the roll-on/roll-off cargo 

handling concept in the short sea shipping 

segment. The car and passenger ferries 

employed in the extensive network of regular 

ferry services in Northern Europe are 

not just carriers of passengers. 

They also form the floating bridges of 

the inter-European road transport system. 

Due to the usually rather short stays 

in port, mainly trucks and to some extent 

road trailers are carried on the passenger/ 

car ferries. 

A considerable part of the ro-pax fleet is 

employed on relatively short routes, too, 

enabling either a single or a round trip a 

day. The mix of cargo is also quite similar 

to that carried on conventional car/passenger 

ferries with emphasis on lorries. On 

the longer ferry routes, where the tonnage 

mostly consists of ro-pax ferries with large 

cargo capacity, the cargo tends to be more 

mixed. It includes lorries and road trailers 

but also goods on typical ro-ro cargo units 

such as mafi-trailers and cassettes. 

On some routes with exceptional cargo 

flow the fleet of ferries may be completed 

with ro-ro vessels for cargo only. But on 

most routes the most successful concept 

has turned out to be a combination of 

passengers and cargo vehicles in various 



proportions. In general terms the relative 

importance of the passenger traffic of a 

ferry route tends to decrease with the distance. 

Cargo only 

Pure cargo liner services with ro-ro vessels 

usually span longer distances than the traditional 

ferry routes. The operations are 

focused on carrying road trailers, cassettes 

and mafis. 

The majority of vessels employed are 

pure freighters with a maximum passenger 

capacity for twelve drivers. The strong 

position of the ro-ro vessel in the Nordic 

transport network is hard to disturb. Ro-ro 

vessels cost less to build than ro-pax ves-

Deep sea and feeder car carriers and short sea ro-ro vessels in the port of Bremerhaven. Bremerhaven is one of 

the main car ports in Northern Europe. 

sels, and in general they are also less costly 

to operate. This makes them the ideal carriers 

for the bulk of the general cargo flow in 

an economical way. 

Compared with a typical ferry or ro-pax, 

the cargo mix is different. Most of the cargo 

is carried on cargo units such as mafi 

trailers, road trailers and cassettes. Containers 

are also carried on ro-ro vessels, but 

normally in the holds on mafis. There are 

also ro-ro vessels designed for carrying containers 

on deck. 

Ro-ro vessels form the backbone of the 

transport capacity employed by the Nordic 

forest industry. Most of the routes run from 

ports in Finland or the Swedish Norrlandcoast 

to the Continent and the UK. These 

services have usually evolved from the forest 

industries’ own system shipments in the 

1980’s. Now there are common carriers, 

taking at least external cargo on the return 

leg. 

The car shipments form a chapter of their 

own. Pure car carriers have their own trades 

and the European traffic is mainly handled 

by car feeder ships, distributing cars from 

the central ports to the local markets. 

These vessels do not usually carry any 

return cargoes from Scandinavia and the 

Baltic Sea area. But there are also large volumes 

of cars shipped on regular ro-ro liner 

services. 

This has turned out to be a successful 

way to employ the fleet of ro-ro vessels on 


their return voyages to Finland or Sweden, 

thus improving the balance in an exportoriented 

traffic. 

Three main areas 

In Northern Europe the ro-ro liner services 

employing vessels with a max twelve-driver-capacity 

are located to a few areas. There 

are three large traffic systems in Northern 

Europe, to which most of the ro-ro services 

of the region are concentrated. 

The longest of these traffic lanes, 

employing a large number of ice-strengthened 

ro-ro ships, runs between the Baltic 

Sea and the North Sea. The Baltic Sea ferry 

services are mainly operated across the 

Baltic Sea, connecting a port on one shore 




many of the ro-ro vessels leaving Finland or Sweden for the Continent and the UK are fully 

loaded with paper reels and other forest products. 

with a port on the opposite shore. The roro 

services run in a direction along the Baltic 

Sea. The traffic relies heavily on Finnish 

and Swedish shipments, but some vessels 

also call Estonian ports. Ports in Sweden 

and especially in Finland have highly frequent 

sailings to a number of ports on the 

Continent and the UK. In the course of 

the years there has been a concentration 

at both ends. Some of the most important 

ports in the ro-ro liner network are 

Rostock, Travemünde/Lübeck, Kiel, Cuxhaven, 

Bremerhaven, Antwerp, Terneuzen, 

Zeebrügge, Tilbury, Felixstowe and Hull. 

There are also ro-ro services connecting 

the Baltic states with Sweden and Denmark, 

but ro-pax vessels are employed on 

most of these routes. The central area for 

Western Scandinavian ro-ro shipments is 

the North Sea. From Sweden, Denmark 

and Norway there are several high-frequency 

ro-ro routes to the Continent and the 

UK. The heaviest cargo flows are concentrated 

to the ports of Immingham, Harwich, 

Tilbury, Zeebrügge and Ghent. These 

are in general fast ro-ro services, providing 

a more attractive alternative for direct shipments 

than long road haulage. 

The third main area with concentrations 

of ro-ro services are the British Isles, with 

several routes between England and the 

Continent. However, the ferry routes dominate 

the scene, including services across 

the Irish Sea and the English Channel. 

Different patterns 

In 2006 some 46 million tons of cargo were 

carried in ro-ro units to and from Swedish 

ports. 

This counts for 26 per cent of the total 


amount of cargo (180 million tons) handled 

in Swedish ports. The figure includes trailers, 

trucks, mafi trailers, cassettes, railway 

wagons etc. As a matter of fact the share of 

goods carried by ro-ro vessels is even larger 

as certain quantities of forest products – 

mainly paper – are carried on ro-ro vessels 

but stowed directly in the holds without 

cargo units (sto-ro). Containers may also 

be handled lo-lo on the weather deck on 

some ro-ro vessels. 

The volume of cargo loaded in ro-ro 

units was more than three times larger 

in Swedish ports than the cargo shipped 

in containers, which totalled 9.2 million 

tons. 

In Finnish ports ro-ro vessels loaded and 

discharged 17.9 million tons of cargo, and 

ferries 7.2 million tons of cargo in traffic to 

and from foreign ports in 2006. The total 

volume of goods handled in foreign traffic 

in Finnish ports was 99.2 million tons that 

year. This indicates that also in Finland the 

ferries and the ro-ro vessels count for at 

least a quarter of all carried goods. 

11.9 million tons of cargo was shipped 

in containers through Finnish ports, and a 

considerable part was carried on ro-ro vessels. 

The Finnish statistics include some 1.6 

million tons of general cargo transited further 

to Russia. This volume mainly consists 

of containerized goods and new cars. 

In Norway the share of ro-ro traffic in 

the ports is considerably smaller. Of the 

total of 181 million tons of cargo in 2006, 

7.3 million was ro-ro related, which corresponds 

to 3 per cent of the total amount of 

cargo. Of all general cargo handled in the 

Norwegian ports in 2006 only 25 per cent 

was ro-ro cargo and 17 per cent containerized. 

The statistics show that at least in Sweden 

and Finland ro-ro shipments form the 

bulk of the short sea traffic with general 

cargo. The volume of containers is indeed 

growing, but containers are mainly used 

as cargo units in overseas traffic even if 

they are fed by vessels in short sea traffic. 

An exception are of course the containers 

loaded and discharged in Gothenburg and 

Århus, which both have direct liner traffic 

to overseas destinations. 


Spliethoff’s new series of ro-ro vessels designed for Transfennica’s traffic are also container 

carriers. The picture shows the Kraftca during a transit through the Kiel Canal. 



Global ro-ro: 

Growing in niches 

The concept of large combined ro-ro 

and container carriers has lost ground 

in the transoceanic liner services over 

the last ten year. 

The reason is obvious: The development 

of large-scale container systems that has 

radically lowered transport cost and transit 

time. This does not mean that ro-ro has 

lost ground in the deepsea trades – quite 

on the contrary – but it has responded and 

targeted the market for which it is supremely 

efficient: Wheel-based and non-containerized 

cargo. 

In terms of volume, the market for rolling 

stock – from cars (new and secondhand) 

to “high & heavy” machinery – has 

been growing briskly over the last years, 

resulting in a shortage of car carriers. Cars 

have become more important as basic cargo 

for the ro-ro services, much because of 

the growing diversification of production 

sites and transport flow. Also, areas like 

Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa 

have seen strong growth in terms of car 

imports. True, most of the cars are taken by 

pure car/truck carriers like Eukor, K-Line, 

Mitsui-OSK, Höegh Autoliners et cetera, 

but car volumes have become very important 

to liner operations like Wallenius Wilhelmsen 

Logistics and Grimaldi Lines. 

The concept of combined ro-ro and container 

services like the Atlantic Container 

Lines (ACL) across the North Atlantic has 

become more of a niche operation, still 

basically operating its six G3 ships dating 

from 1984/85. 

A refined business model 

Ten years ago, Wilh Wilhelmsen, Grimaldi 

and ACL were all operating combined roro 

container carriers in their respective net- 


The Tamesis 

in Sydney. 

works. They had all arrived at the concept 

of large ro-ro vessels with quarter ramp and 

container capacity on the weather deck. 

Designed capacity for containers below 

deck could, however, never compete with 

lo-lo handling for economic reasons. 

Wilhelmsen has since decided to abandon 

containers altogether. This happened 

in 1997 with the decision to go for an 

enclosed ro-ro liner with container deck 

and in 2003 by the decision to use the container 

capacity in its older vessels for car 

decks. 

The reason? Because Wilhelmsen decid- 

The Talisman. 

ed to focus on non-containerized cargo 

over the ro-ro ramp rather than compete 

for containerized cargo with container 

operators with ultra-large vessels. The decision 

was largely decreed by the integration 

of the traditional liner services with car 

transportation from 1995, and paved the 

way for Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines in 

1999. 

The market for wheel-based cargo has 

also developed over the years, with all sorts 

of heavy vehicles, agricultural machines, 

railway equipment, batches of secondhand 

cars, in addition to contracts for new 

cars with the auto industry. Today Wallenius 

Wilhelmsen Logistics is a dedicated 

carrier for non-containerized cargo: Cars, 

“high & heavy” vehicles, project cargo and 

various breakbulk cargo which do not fit 

into a container but may be stowed on 

mafi trailers or bolsters. For WWL, it is a 

refined business model to go for the more 

lucrative end of the market. 

Expanding Grimaldi 

The Grimaldi Group of Genoa has its 

stronghold in the Atlantic, with services 

from Northern Europe to the Mediterranean, 

West Africa and South America, 

and from the Mediterranean across to 

South America. In addition, Grimaldi has 

acquired ACL operating between Northern 

Europe and the US Atlantic coast. 

Grimaldi has decided on two main 

designs: The enclosed ro-ro vessel looking 

much like a car carrier, and a combined vessel 

with container capacity on the weather 

deck. Ten combined ships have been built 


to the Grande Africa-design in 1998–2004, 

of 214 meters with capacity for 2,500 car 

units and 800 TEU and cargo ramp for 

250 tons. But also enclosed ships like the 

Repubblica del Brasile-class offer container 

capacity, in this case on the weather deck 

aft. 

These ships have been designed to meet 

the requirements on the South American 

services. However, competition from container 

carriers must sooner or later present 

Grimaldi with the same challenge as Wilhelmsen 

met ten years ago in its service to 

Australia. Grimaldi’s building programme 

clearly points to an emphasis on enclosed 

vessels and pure car/truck carriers, with 

ships of the Grande Napoli-design for 

5,380 car units and no containers. 

Robust ro-ro services 

The transoceanic ro-ro services appears 

stronger than ever, judging from the cargo 

volumes carried across the world. But the 

advent of the large container systems has 

eroded the idea of combined ro-ro container 

services and led the carriers to focus 

on the part of the market with the highest 

gains. 

This also testifies to the maturing of the 

cargo market, with the tremendous growth 

of containers as the most conspicuous, 

but also with larger and more diverse noncontainerized 

volumes. The question is, 

of course, whether other car carriers will 

follow Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s broader 

logistic emphasis in the future and create 

genuine global ro-ro bridges? 

dag bakka jr 


SSG ARCHIVE 


The Paralla was the first true ro-ro and was copied many times. 

Göteborg – 

the capital of ro-ro 

Göteborg has been called the ro-ro 

capital and the city has a long 

tradition in this section of shipping. 

“I think we must go back to the 

old Transatlantic in Göteborg and 

Wilhelmsen in Oslo, which decided to 

develop the traditional ro-ro vessels 

that just had a hole in the stern and 

equip them with a large ramp. This 

was in the late 1960s”, says Erkki 

Persson, former head of both shipyards 

and cargo equipment companies. 

The development of ro-ro technology 

is parallel with that of the container and 

Erkki Persson has his own theory on why 

ro-ro technology has been developed in 

Göteborg and the Nordic countries. 

“When American Sealand first started 

to take the containers out on the deep sea, 

the Norwegians were very sceptical, and 

my very personal speculation is that this 

Norwegian scepticism has driven the development 

of ro-ro technology”, says Erkki 

Persson. 

100 services per week 

The technology development is very much 

concentrated to Göteborg. The Port of 

Göteborg has naturally been a strong partner 

in ro-ro development. Today the port 

has more than 100 ro-ro-services, both 

short sea and overseas, each week. There 

are, and have been, a number of companies 

in the city that have driven the development. 

Today both MacGregor and TTS have 

their cargo handling division headquarters 

in the city. Both companies, with their 

respective predecessors, are responsible for 

many ro-ro solutions such as ramps, link 

spans, hoistable decks and others, both onboard 

ships and on-shore in harbours and 

ports around the world. 

MacGregor nowadays incorporates what 

was once Associated Cargo Gear, which later 

became Navire Cargo Gear, a company 

created out of the Eriksberg, Götaverken 

and Kockums shipyards’ hatch cover 

departments and its Managing Director 

was Erkki Persson. 

“In hindsight this company was really 

the first sign of the coming crisis for the 

Swedish shipyard industry, because the 


cooperation between the three shipyards 

was a demand from the government if it 

was to give the shipyards any subsidies. But 

still, before MacGregor made their patent 

infringement and sold their first stern quarter 

ramp, we had already sold and delivered 

42 such ramps.” 

The first true ro-ro vessel 

The first of those 42 ramps was delivered 

and installed on the first true ro-ro vessel, 

the Paralla, built at Eriksberg Mekaniska 

verkstad in 1971, and she was soon copied 

and had vessels just like her sailing all 

the way down in to Australia. The quarter 

ramp is designed with an angle that makes 

it possible to lower the ramp on to a quay 

that is parallel to the vessel’s port side. 

“Up until today I think somewhere 

between 120 and 130 Paralla ramps have 

been delivered”, says Pelle Fagerlund, the 

man who was in charge of the design and 

construction of the ramp and later for 17 

years Technical Director at the old Transatlantic. 

“In the process of delivering the ramp to 

the Paralla there was a company takeover 

in which there was an agreement that all 

flaws and alterations to the ramp were to be 

corrected at the expense of the old owners. 

This meant that I could correct every little 

thing and deliver a product completely free 

from faults”, says Pelle Fagerlund. 

The Boogabilla class 

Of course that is a good way to make a 

name for a new product. The ro-ro concept 

gained acceptance and with the Boogabilla 

delivered from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 

in Nagasaki in 1978, the Jumbo ramp 

was introduced and represented in a way 

the next step in the development. 

“I think the Boogabilla class today consists 

of around 60 vessels”, says Pelle Fagerlund 

and continues: 

“Parallelly with this development, Tor 

Line developed the short-sea ro-ro, especially 

with their traffic on England, and 

of course Stena designed and built a large 

number of ro-ro vessels with their Searunner 

class and then the Forerunner class, 

and they have continued to develop both 

ro-ros and ro-pax vessels, with their highspeed 

vessels as a sort of extreme”, says 

Pelle Fagerlund, who has been involved 

in the design of all three of Atlantic Container 

Lines’ generations of ro-ro vessels 

and even though he is supposedly retired 

he is currently involved in designing the 

SSG ARCHIVE 

fourth generation of ACL vessels through 

his own company Globtech which shares 

office space with TTS. 

According to Pelle Fagerlund, TTS made 

its way into the ro-ro industry when Navire 

Cargo Gear and MacGregor, after some 

turbulence, became one company and 

thereby totally dominant in the world market 

for ro-ro equipment. 

“I think it was particularly Wallenius 

who did not like this and they made German 

Kvaerner, who had already designed 

some ships’ equipment, enter the ro-ro 

segment. Kvaerner was later bought by 

Norwegian TTS and they have continued 


With the Boogabilla, built 1978, the Jumbo ramp was introduced and the ship represented an 

important step in the ro-ro development. 

to buy companies and now there are both 

TTS Ports Equipment and TTS Cargo Gear 

in Göteborg.” 

TTS and MacGregor, with their ro-ro 

oriented divisions in Göteborg, are not 

only large players in the world market for 

ro-ro equipment, they are also world leaders. 

“Yes, MacGregor and TTS absolutely 

dominate the world market for this type of 

equipment”, says Pelle Fagerlund. 

Straight lanes 

In the 1990s another large step in ro-ro 

development was taken with a series of ves- 


SSG ARCHIVE RO-RO TECHNOLOGY 

The Boogabilla in 1982 with the eye-catching Jumbo ramp. 

sels designed for traffic with paper from 

Stora Enso’s paper mills in northern Sweden 

and Finland. 

“These vessels have absolutely straight 

lanes throughout the whole vessel, not just 

almost straight lanes as all previous vessels 

have.” 

Straight lanes means easy access and 

easy access means quicker loading and dis- 

charge, which in turn means shortening the 

time it takes to turn the vessel in the port. 

The Wagenborg vessels in the Stora Enso 

trade can be turned, discharged and loaded 

again in four hours theoretically, something 

that could never have been done if 

the cargo had been containerised. 

The quick loading and discharging is 

made possible with ramps, or link spans as 

they are often called, in the port. We are 

used to seeing these ramps in the ports, 

especially around ferries, but from the 

beginning stern quarter ramps were developed 

so the quays would not need the 

alterations they previously had to enable 

rolling on and off of the cargo. But the 

development of ro-ro technology has made 

its way onto the quayside and today vessels 

and ports equipment are often integrated 

into an effective system. 

More short sea ro-ro in the future 

In the future Pelle Fagerlund sees a large 

potential for more short sea ro-ro vessels, 

as well as their competitors, the container 

feeders. 

“I think we need both. On the routes 

from, say, Scandinavia and the Baltic 

region down to the continent where the 

distance is short, the turning time in port is 

essential and the ro-ro vessel is unbeatable, 

but on the routes down to the southern 

parts of Europe and the Mediterranean a 

few hours in port does not matter and the 

container feeder vessel is more economical 

with its higher cargo capacity.” 

fredrik davidsson 

Think of us when you are 

planning clean ships 

Co-operation between MacGREGOR, shipowners and shipyards 

lies behind the development of electric-drive car decks, and over 

75,000 m² of this type has already been ordered. Compared with 

hydraulic-drive versions, advantages include simplified installation 

and reduced maintenance costs as well as elimination of oil 

leakage. 

Environmentally-friendly cargo access equipment is both 

economical, and competitive. 

See us at stand D15 at the RoRo 2008 exhibition in Svenska 

Mässan, Gothenburg between 20 - 22 May – where we can 

explain more. 

Profit from our experience 

www.macgregor-group.com 

MacGREGOR is part of Cargotec Corporation 


Congratulations! 

DNV congratulates Color Line with SuperSpeed 1. 

DNV serving the Maritime Industry 

www.dnv.com 

It’s about leadership. 

Color Line’s new ferry for fast transportation with the highest standards to safety and comfort for passengers, 

crew and vessel. 

DNV is proud to have played a role in creating the SuperSpeed 1 ferry which has been built according to the 

following class notations ✠1A1 ICE-1B Car Ferry A MCDK COMF-V(2) E0 F-M NAUT-OC CLEAN VIBR 

PWDK SSC TMON. 

Photo: Color Line AS

STENA Ro-Ro Ro-Ro TECHNoLoGY 

The two new Stena Line ferries for the Hoek van Holland–Harwich route, shown here to the public for the very first time, 

that will be delivered in 2010 provide added facilities for the passengers compared to the ferries of today. 

Larger and faster ships 

in the future 

The ro-ro and ro-pax vessels of the future will probably, at least to a large 

extent, look more or less like the vessels of today. However, as the vessels will 

be either purpose built for a designated market or more generally for the open 

market, the design will vary slightly. The speed will likely be a few knots above 

20 and the vessels will be larger than today. 

In a ro-ro vessel built for trailer handling 

only, there will be no need for extra height 

in the cargo space. If the vessel, on the 

other hand, is intended for a more flexible 

market it must be able to handle cargo of 

the most varying sizes and weights. 

The heights of the cargo space and access 

to the different levels might therefore be of 

crucial importance. The six new buildings 

for Finnlines being built in China will have 

a free height on main deck of seven metres 

and will have two levels of hoistable car 

decks. This arrangement provides a wide 

range of solutions and possibilities. 

“If all the decks are being used”, says 

Christer Bruzelius, Finnlines Shipmanagement 

in Malmö, “the vessels will have 

3,240 trailer lane metres and be able to 

load 900 cars in three layers. With a speed 

of 21 knots, the vessels will be able to make 

a round trip between Antwerp, the large 

European hub for new cars, and the Baltic 

Sea within one week.” 

A couple of years ago this size was 

looked upon as a large ro-ro vessel, but 

today it must be considered a medium size 

vessel. 


The largest growing market and economy 

in the Baltic region is Russia. And as 

long as the prices of oil and gas continue 

to be high, the Russian market will be in 

need of cars as well as all kinds of technology 

and the whole spectrum of consumer 

goods. 

As the market for passengers with cars 

is growing constantly, this type of vessel, 

or rather its passengers demand more and 

more and the concept and features of ropax 

vessels need to be upgraded so that 

they provide added facilities for the guests. 

The passengers of today want to have an 

experience while travelling and not, as the 

case was a couple of years ago, just be provided 

with transportation from one port to 

another as fast as possible. 

In an attempt to comply with this, Stena 

Line is currently building two new ferries 

for the Hoek van Holland-Harwich route. 

The two vessels are being built in Germany 

and will both be delivered in 2010. The 

capacity will be 1,200 passengers and 5,500 

lane metres. 

To reach scale economies, it will be even 

more important in the future to load as 

much cargo as possible on as few keels as 

possible. According to Christer Schoug at 

Stena Ro-Ro, the increasing price of fuel in 

combination with expected fees that will 

be charged on the use of fossil fuel and, 

not to forget, the shortage of skilled crews, 

will enforce the need for larger vessels and 

even more effective cargo handling. I.e. a 

smaller number of vessels of larger size and 

vessels with a minimum of fuel consumption 

will most likely be the ideal combination 

for the future on most routes. 

Many vessels on order 

It seems though, that the high and still constantly 

rising prices of newbuildings will 

limit the number of orders for new vessels 

and elongation and conversion of existing 

vessels will be even more common in the 

foreseeable future, at least while waiting for 

the newbuilding yards price levels to drop. 

On 1 April, approximately 150 ro-ro 

vessels were on order for delivery by July 

2012. 150 vessels correspond to almost 30 

per cent of the existing fleet and are an all 

time high. 

The Motorways of the Seas concept 

will probably be developed further in an 

attempt to shift at least a proportion of the 

cargo from the roads to sea. 

Several operators are convinced that 

the Huckepack handling, trailers on train, 

STENA Ro-Ro 

More effective cargo handling will be important in the future. 

will increase as a natural and environment 

friendly part in the transport chain. 

The feeder traffic of containers might be a 

future threat to ro-ro activities on shorter 

routes. 

Energy management 

Disregarding type of vessel, ro-ro or ro-pax, 

energy management is a prestige word of 

today and probably even more of tomorrow. 

A lot of fuel, emissions and money 

are saved and, surprisingly to many, even 

large investments have a remarkably short 

payback time. Investments regarded as 

unrealistic only a few years ago nowadays 

prove to be of utmost interest. 

One objective, seemingly obvious, is to 

close down/switch off as much as possible 

on board and only use the energy that is 

really needed. This can, for instance, be 

done with the help of frequency controlled 

pumps, by modified propeller blades 

optimized for the route, by only using the 

ventilation in cargo spaces and accommodation 

when really needed, by changing 

the fluorescent tubes to low energy fittings 

etcetera. 

The shape of the hull has always been a 

natural issue of interest for the naval architects, 

but nowadays this issue is being even 

further developed and is unambiguously 

contributing to better operating economy. 

The draught has not altered much and is 

still around seven metres for the vessels 

in the Baltic, but is a route-to-route issue 

without any real fixed figure. Today the 


underwater body is being tested and in all 

respects being dealt with in a far more serious 

way than ever before, not least the aft 

part. We have seen new shapes and angles 

on the propeller blades of conventional 

plants and totally new propeller arrangements 

have recently been introduced on 

the market. 

The machinery 

Shipping has always been a rather conservative 

business and there are still players 

in the shipping industry that find it hard 

to accept Pod-propellers and other state of 

the art solutions, even though vessels with 

the Pod-system provide better manoeuvrability 

and leave more available space in the 

engine room – allowing, in some cases, further 

cargo space. 

The goal is, of course, to create a hull 

as slim and slender as it reasonably can be 

to get a vessel with low fuel oil consumption 

at high speed. But vessels are not built 

mainly for low fuel oil consumption but 

for carrying cargo. A trustworthy buoyancy 

and deadweight are essential. 

On smaller and medium size ro-ro and 

ro-pax vessels with conventional propulsion 

machinery, there is generally more 

than one main engine. Most of the ships 

in the Stena Ro-Ro fleet have four main 

engines, two propellers and two rudders 

and with a constellation like that it is rather 

easy to optimize the output. 

On much larger and ocean going vessels, 

however, it is more common to use one two- 



The Nordlink, on the Malmö–Travemünde route, was delivered from Fincantieri in 2007. She 

has a capacity of 500 passengers and 4,200 lanemetres. 

stroke engine for the propulsion machinery. 

On the four new generation ro-ro carriers 

that Wilh. Wilhelmsen and Wallenius Line 

will have built in Japan for delivery in 2011 

and 2012, a main engine developing 22,890 

kW will be installed in each carrier. 

Enough exhaust-gas energy will be 

Copenhagen Malmö Port AB 

Containervej 9 

P.O.Box 900 

DK-2100 Copenhagen 

Denmark 

Tel. + 45 35 46 11 11 

Fax + 45 35 46 11 64 

E-mail: cmport@cmport.com 

recovered to generate all the electrical power 

needed at sea. The optimal usage of the 

main engines power capacity will reduce 

the CO2, NOx, SOx and FOC emissions. 

Most ro-ro vessels being built nowadays 

for the European market either have a catalytic 

converter for reducing emissions from 

Terminalgatan 18 

Box 566 

S-201 25 Malmö 

Sweden 

Tel. + 46 (0) 40 680 41 00 

Fax + 46 (0) 40 18 05 01 

www.cmport.com 

the exhaust gases, or are being prepared for 

a retrofit. 

The extension of the SECA (Sulphur 

Emission Control Areas) areas has led to 

the same rules now being in force for a 

larger area and it is no longer allowed to 

use different types of fuel, depending on 

whether the vessel is in the English Channel, 

the North Sea or in the Baltic. 

Electricity ashore 

Several operators are using gas oil for the 

auxiliary engines when in port but there 

is a tendency to arrange for shore power 

whilst alongside, though very much is governed 

by the ports ability to supply power 

of adequate capacity. 

The spokesmen for shore connections 

in major ports are growing in numbers and 

most newbuildings will be prepared to connect 

to power from shore, when the ports 

have taken the necessary steps. One question 

that might be relevant to ask, however, 

is if the electricity produced ashore is cleaner 

than the electricity produced on board a 

modern vessel with low sulphur fuel and 

Selective Catalytic NOx Reduction? 

robert hermansson 

ONE PORT � TWO COUNTRIES � AN OCEAN OF OPPORTUNITIES 

– your logistic partner 


SSG ARCHIVES RO-RO TECHNOLOGY 

ACL on the go 

with the fourth generation 

The first G1 Atlantic Span was relieved by the first G3 Atlantic Companion. ACL is now gearing 

up to find the next generation of Atlantic-crossing ConRos. 

Having pioneered the ro-ro liner 

service over the North Atlantic with 

three generations of state of the 

art vessels and innovative logistic 

concepts, Atlantic Container Line 

is mobilising to introduce a fourth 

generation of con-ros, the G4 vessels. 

It all started in 1965 when the Swedish 

shipowner Olof Wallenius initiated a company 

and was joined by a number of European 

liner companies to raise the substantial 

amount of money needed to invest in 

a fleet of new and unique liner vessels for 

the North Atlantic trade. 

On 4th September 1967, the Atlantic 

Span loaded its first cargo in the Skandia 

terminal in Göteborg and set off on Atlantic 

Container Lines first voyage across the 

Atlantic. The 700 TEU Atlantic Span was 

the first vessel of a groundbreaking ConRo 

(container/ro-ro vessel) design, and she was 

soon to be followed by three sister vessels. 

A few years later, six vessels of a secondgeneration 

design entered the fleet. These 

powerful steam turbine 900-TEU vessels 

reached a speed of 24.5 knots, in contrast 

to 20.5 knots for the first generation (G1) 

vessels. At this time, ACL also introduced 

computerised support systems for intermodal, 

door-to-door transports. 

Turning around tough times 

In 1984, the 2,160 TEU Atlantic Companion 

as the first unit in the third generation 

of ACL con-ros departed from its building 

yard, the Kockums Varv in Malmö, Sweden. 

Together with four sister vessels she 

was ready for battle on the North Atlantic 

trade where competition had become 

increasingly fierce. To improve efficiency 

and gain economy of scale effects the G3 

vessels were lengthened a couple of years 

later, and capacity increased to about 3,000 

TEU. 

ACL had a rough ride in the late 1980ties 

and the first half of the 1990ties with several 

consequtive years of red figures at the 

bottom line. During this time the company 

launched a battery of measures to remedy 

the situation. The actions were highly successful 

and ACL managed to make a dra- 

Ulf Granander of ACL Sweden says it will be 

a challenge to find larger amounts of cargo. 

matic turnaround to profitability and to a 

complete write-down of the vessels. 

Today, the Italian-owned (the Grimaldi 

Group), Swedish company, headquartered 

in USA, is preparing to take the next major 

step in the evolution of the Transatlantic 

liner trade. 

The planning of a fourth generation of 

state of the art vessels is progressing and 

rumours have it that a final order may be 

expected during the second half of this year. 

This is however not confirmed by ACL, 

and according to the company there is no 

rush. The G3 vessels have gone through an 

extensive life extension program and may 

trade for several years to come. 

”We expect to take delivery of a new 

series of ships sometime during 2012–2016, 

depending on shipyard availability, prices 

and the disposal of the G3s”, says Andy 

Abbott, CEO of ACL. 

ACL declines to reveal any specifics on 

the new vessel generation at this time, but 

the way things are moving, the picture will 

become a lot clearer before the end of the 

first half of this year. One thing that is cer- 


ANNA LUNDbERG

tain is however that the fleet modernisation 

will be a USD billion deal covering 

five con-ro vessels. 

”We still have not settled on a final 

design”, says Abbott. 

Some of these are more conservative and 

one option is simply a larger version of the 

G3, while other designs are considerably 

more innovative, and today Abbott expects 

the final design to be one of the latter. 

One important size-restrictive factor is 

the lock in Liverpool. 

“We do expect the length to be similar 

to our current vessels (292 meters, editor’s 

note) but the beam will probably be 5–6 

meters wider.” 

This indicates a beam of 37–38 meters, 

and this could increase capacity by 35–45 

per cent, depending on which design ACL 

finally chooses. 

One yard to build all 

The new generation will have dedicated 

space for containers, high and heavy, and 

cars, with car decks able to accommodate 

high-sided vehicles like Volvo XC-90’s and 

US made sport utility vehicles. 

“At this time, I think that the propor- 

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tion of ro-ro and container capacity will 

be roughly the same as in the G3s”, says 

Abbott. 

If we do not find 

a governmental purchaser, 

the G3s will be scrapped. 

There are no plans today for any changes 

of the ports-of-call, but the G4s will be 

faster than the G3s to compensate for the 

expected increase in port time due to the 

larger capacity of the new vessels. 

The speed of phasing-in of the new series 

will depend on shipyard capacity. 

“When we ordered the G3s, we had 

three shipyards building the vessels and we 

took deliveries during 1984 and 1985. The 

G4s will be built by one shipyard, and it 

will probably only be able to build two at a 

time,” says Abbott. 

So what will happen to the G3s? None 

of the vessels in the earlier generations 

have been sold on the commercial secondhand 

market. 


”The G3 vessels will not be sold commercially,” 

says Abbott. ”If we do not find 

a governmental purchaser, the ships will be 

scrapped.” 

Irrespective of the size of the G4s, new 

capacity will be added and more cargo has 

to be found. 

”This will be the big challenge for us” 

says Ulf Granander, Managing director od 

ACL Sweden in Göteborg. ”We have to dig 

deeper in our current market and enter new 

adjacent markets”. 

Confident about potential 

ACL is confident about the potential in 

the market, and the demand for regular 

transatlantic ro-ro transports as well as for 

special projects is on the rise. 

The company also gets more enquiries 

and orders for consignments that are too 

large to be shipped in containers. 

The reason is that industrial manufacturers 

that normally ship equipment dismantled 

to fit into containers have experienced 

that the cost for assemblage at the destination 

exceeds the cost for an oversized ro-ro 

transport. 



World Leader 

in RoRo transport 

M. Di Lorenzo

GRIMALDI LINES 

The Leading RO/RO Carrier 

The new generation of Grimaldi Lines vessels, have 

proven to be extremely effective and are the most 

technologically advanced RO/RO multipurpose carriers 

on the Northern European, Mediterranean, South 

American and West African sea routes. 

The service speed is 19–20 knots to ensure the fastest 

transit time and to tie the vessels to programmed calls 

as scheduled. 

As a GRIMALDI LINES customer you can count on: 

n Fast transit times, bringing your overseas market 

closer to you 

n Competitive rates 

n High level of damage protection by skilled 

GRIMALDI LINES staff, a guarantee for the safety 

of your cargo 

n Regular sailings: Mediterranean Service fixed-day 

sailings every 7 days, South American Service 

regular sailings every 10 days, West African 

Service regular sailings every 7 days. 

All of which add up to a first class service to the 

benefit of your products and trade. 

The GRIMALDI LINES RO/RO vessels can carry cars 

– all kinds of vehicles – standard and special containers 

– forest products – general cargo – project 

cargo. 

GRIMALDI MEDITERRANEAN SERVICE port of call: 

Wallhamn - Antwerp - Esbjerg -Southampton - Portbury 

- Cork - Setubal - Valencia - Savona - Livorno 

- Civitavecchia - Salerno - Palermo - Vallette - Tunis 

- Piraeus - Izmir - Gemlik - Limassol - Ashdod - Haifa 

- Alexandria 

GRIMALDI SOUTH AMERICAN SERVICE ports of 

call: Hamburg – Antwerp – Le Havre – Bilbao – 

Tilbury – Lisbon – Salvador – Vitoria – 

Rio de Janeiro – Santos – Paranagua – 

Buenos Aires – Zarate – Montevideo 

GRIMALDI WEST AFRICAN SERVICE ports of call: 

Hamburg – Antwerp – Le Havre – Tilbury – Amsterdam 

– Casablanca – Dakar – Banjul – Freetown – 

Abidjan – Takordi – Tema – Pointe Noire – Libreville – 

Monrovia – Lome – Cotonou – Lagos – Douala – 

Boma – Luanda. 

Scandinavia is served by feeders for the South 

American and West African services. 

Nominated by Lloyd’s Loading List as Deep Sea Ro/Ro Line of the 

year 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 

For further information and bookings please contact: 

Grimaldi Maritime Agencies Sweden AB, P.O.Box 2185, SE-403 13 Gothenburg, Sweden 

Tel. no +46(0)31-60 72 80 • Fax. no +46(0)31-13 57 24 

www.grimaldisweden.se 

Via Marchese Campodisola, 13 - 80133 NAPOLI • Tel. +39 081 496 777 • Fax +39 081 551 74 01 

www.grimaldi.napoli.it • switchboard@grimaldi.napoli.it


Bore + ConRo = RoFlex 

Hoistable car decks and a powerful 

main engine are characteristics of 

Bore’s new RoFlex concept. Two 

vessels of this type will be delivered 

in 2011. 

In 2007 Bore ordered two large ro-ro vessels 

from the German shipyard Flensburger 

Schiffbau-Gesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG 

for the total cost of more than EUR 100 

million. As many times before, Bore once 

again chose to go for new innovations and 

the latest available technology. 

Senior Executive Vice President Thomas 

Franck of Bore explains that Bore needs 

ships that are possible to operate on many 

different trades. 

”We were negotiating with shipyards 

in China, but when we wanted increased 

height on the main deck they didn’t want 

to do any modifications to their standard 

design. However, Flensburger was willing to 

change their ConRo design, and we signed 

the contract with them. We decided to call 

our design RoFlex, in order to underline 

that we are not a follower using an old concept 

but an innovator with new ideas.” 

The vessels ordered from Flensburger are 

somewhat more expensive than the Chinese 

ones, but Mr Franck thinks that the 

higher price charged by the German shipyard 

will pay itself back in the long run. 

”After all, the vessels may be sailing for 

more than 30 years and we as long-term 

owners think that it is better to invest a little 

bit more and get the latest technology.” 

Car decks 

The features of the RoFlex concept include 

hoistable and fixed car decks for the shipments 

of cars. Bore introduced this feature 

already in the early 1970’s and it has made 

its vessels attractive on the charter market. 

In the newbuildings the height of the main 

deck will be 7.4 metres. 

If the hoistable car decks are not in use, 

the free height allows the shipments of 

double stacked containers. With the car 

decks in use, there is still enough space 

below them for conventional ro-ro cargo 

or trailers. 

Another major change to the original 

design was installing a Wärtsilä common 

rail main engine. 

”The speed increased with one knot to 

20 knots, and the exhaust gas emissions 

will be reduced by the common rail system 

to fulfil the new regulations coming into 

force in 2010”, Mr Franck says. 

Mann Lines will take both vessels on 

time charter for five years with an option 

for an additional five years. Today Bore has 

two vessels on time charter to Mann Lines, 

the Estraden and the Borden. 

Mr Franck sees it as an advantage that 

Mann Lines is connected to the newbuilding 

process at an early stage. 

”They now have the possibility to do 

changes in the design on the basis of their 

demands as the actual building of the vessels 

is going to start in 2010.” 

We believe that operational 

economy and low bunker 

consumption will be the 

driving forces in the future. 

The newbuildings will provide excellent 

operational economy. The cargo capacity 

will be 1,000 lane metres larger than on the 

Estraden, but the bunker consumption is 

expected to decrease with up to 10 tons a 

day. 

”We believe that operational economy 

and low bunker consumption will be the 

driving forces in the future”, Mr Franck 

says. 

When the newbuildings will be delivered 

during 2011, they will replace both 

the Estraden and the Borden. 

”We have not decided yet where the 

Estraden and the Borden will be employed 


Bore wanted their own, 

tailor-made version of 

Flensburger’s well-proven 

ConRo-concept, which 

they call Bore RoFlex. 

after that, but one alternative to look at is 

to convert the Estraden into a car carrier.” 

More newbuildings possible 

Mr Franck does not exclude the possibility 

of launching another ro-ro newbuilding 

project, although there are no such projects 

going on for the moment. 

”We are continuously looking into our 

customers’ demands and we follow the 

supply on the market regarding both newbuildings 

and second-hand vessels. We 

have a fleet renewal program going on, in 

which certain vessels should be renewed 

within a certain time frame. As our two 

newbuildings are now employed for several 

years, it would be easier to start other new 

projects.” 

He believes that the demand for modern 

and efficient ro-ro vessels will continue or 

even grow. 

”Compared with the number of other 

types of vessels on order in the world, 

there are very few newbuilding contracts 

for ro-ro vessels. Ro-ro is a narrow niche 

but we strongly believe in the concept. On 

the other hand, ordering a newbuilding is 

a big decision. Before a contract could be 

signed it is necessary to explore long-term 

employment possibilities for the vessel”, 

Mr Franck concludes. 


SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • APRIL 18, 2008 

�� 

�� 

��


SSN builds two ro-pax ferries for Unity Line’s traffic between Poland and Sweden. 

Polsteam expands 

on ferry tonnage 

Although new ferries have been added 

to Unity Line’s ferry service between 

Poland and Sweden, there is still a 

need for further increase of capacity. 

Polsteam has ordered two new ferries 

for delivery in 2010 and 2011. 

The fast growth of cargo units followed by 

tonnage and capacity growth (after establishing 

the Unity Line service with one car/ 

rail and passenger ferry – the Polonia – and 

two railway ferries – the Mikolaj Kopernik 

and the Jan Sniadecki – in 1995) the rapid 

development was noticed after Poland’s 

EU membership. Second-hand ferries 

with larger capacities have strengthened 

the line (the ferries Gryf, Galileusz, Wolin, 

UniTy LineS PoLAnd–Skåne 

Total results (x 1,000) 2007 2006 

Passengers 261 257 

Cars 72 65 

Lorries/trailers 162 144 

UniTy Line 

The Managing Owner of Polsteam’s ferries is its 

subsidiary Unity Line. There are two Polsteam 

ferries serving the Swinoujscie–Trelleborg line 

(the Gryf and the Wolin) and one (the Polonia) 

serving the Swinoujscie–Ystad line. 

Unity Line also operates Euroafrica Shipping 

Line’s three ferries between Swinoujscie and 

Scania’s ports (Trelleborg and Ystad): The Jan 

Heweliusz, the Galileusz and the Kopernik. 

Polferries operates (still separately) one 

car/passenger ferry, the Wawel, between 

Swinoujscie and Ystad. 

Kopernik and the purchase announced last 

month of the Skania, ex Eurostar Roma, 

and the Superfast I). 

The Skania enters service in July 2008 

as an addition on the Swinoujscie – Ystad 

service and will be sailing in pair with the 

Polonia, probably with evening sailings 

from Swinoujscie. 

On April 16, 2007, Polsteam ordered two 

new ferries from Szczecin Shipyard Nova 

(SSN). Delivery is planned for 2010 and 

2011. The estimated contract value is PLN 

500 million (EUR 144 million). Financing 

will be 70 per cent from credit means. 

The ro-pax ferries, to be named the Piast 

and the Patria, will start the builder’s new 

series B606-I-PK. The vessels are designed 

for short international voyages in the Baltic 

Sea and the North Sea region. 

Three decks 

The ferries are designed by the own designing 

department of SSN, with Stanislaw 

Domagallo leading the project. 

The 207 m long ferries are modern and 

effective with short time for loading and 

discharging. The ships’ stern arrangement 

will be suitable for the new facility at the 

modernised Ferry Terminal in Trelleborg. 

Full usage of the advantages of the new 

concept of loading and discharging arrangements 

in Swinoujscie Ferry Terminal will 

be possible only after the building of a new 

ferry berth, which is planned for 2011. 

The newbuildings will be equipped with 

three cargo decks, two stern ramps and a 

bow ramp. The total length of the car lanes 

will be approximately 3,000 m. The clear 

deck height in the lower hold and on main 

deck will be 5.0 m and 4.9 m on upper 

deck under the superstructure. The aft part 

of the weather deck will be suitable for 

dangerous cargoes. 

The passenger capacity will total 344 

passengers, of which 284 may be accommodated 

in 100 cabins. The crew consists 

of 54 persons. 

The public spaces for passengers will 

include an entrance hall with reception, 

shop and cafeteria for about 240 people, 

one TV room, a slot machine room, an 

Irish pub complete with dancing floor and 

a passenger lounge for 60 people arranged 

on a common deck. 

For the crew there are separate crew mess 

rooms, an officer mess room, day room, 

catering crew’s mess room and a crew’s 

re creation room arranged on Crew Deck. 

Twin screw 

The propulsion system will consist of two 

medium speed diesel engines developing 

10,800 kW at 500 rpm, each driving a CP 

propeller through a reduction gearbox. 

Each gearbox will have power take-off for 

a shaft generator. 

The auxiliary machinery will consist 

of three diesel generator sets. The main 

engines may run on heavy fuel up to 700 

cSt/50°C and marine diesel oil. The diesel 

generator sets will run on marine diesel oil 

and gas oil. The vessel may operate using 

only one propulsion line. 

The engine room is located in the ship’s 

aft part, in two compartments: main 

engines compartment and auxiliary diesel 

engines compartment. Provision is made 

for future installation of an SCR system. 

leszek szymanski 

PiAST/PATRiA 

Type: Ro-pax ferries ordered by Polsteam 

from Szczecin Shipyard Nova for delivery in 

2010 and 2011 for Unity Line’s traffic. 

Class: DNV: + 1A1, ICE 1B, Car Ferry A, 

HELDK-SH, NAUT-OC, E0, BIS, PWDK, TMON 

Loa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . approx. 207.00 m 

Lpp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192.00 m 

Breadth moulded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.00 m 

Breadth max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . approx. 27.60 m 

Depth to main deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.15 m 

Depth to upper deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.55 m 

Draught design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . approx. 6.30 m 

Deadweight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . approx. 8,000 t 

Machinery: 

Main engines. . . . . . . . . 2x10,800 kW 500 rpm 

Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . approx. 22 kn 

Cruising range . . . . . . . . . . . . approx. 6,000 Nm 



Construction in the FSG hall. FSG just announced a record seven-ship order for British and Turkish customers. 

FSG stands firm as ro-ro 

market gets tougher 

German ro-ro shipbuilding leader 

Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft 

(FSG) currently has enough work to 

keep it busy until February 2013 – 

that’s a longer capacity utilisation 

period than any other German yard, 

including cruise ship builder Meyer. 

FSG, which employs about 740, currently 

has orders for 21 ships ranging in length 

from 142 to 200 metres with a total contract 

value of more than EUR 1.2 billion. 

It has built 26 ro-ro ships since 2000 when 

it entered the sector in earnest after years of 

building mainly container ships. It is finishing 

off a trio of ro-pax newbuildings for 

Canada and has just announced a record 

seven-ship order for British and Turkish 

customers. 

Despite the bulging order books, the 

search for follow-up orders continues, 

with lengthening work now also a forward 

option if they don’t come and as world 

trade booms for shipowners. With foreign 

competition increasing meanwhile, FSG 

is placing more emphasis on what it has 

always done best – building individual, 

custom-made ships. 

“Dubious business methods” 

FSG told SSG it was concerned about 

increasing Asian and Far East competition 

in the ro-ro sector. Last December it 

said six ro-pax vessels on order for Italian 

owner Grimaldi at Hyundai were “identical” 

to FSG’s series of five 200 metre 

long, 3,900 lane metre ships delivered to 

DFDS Tor Line in 2003/2004. The German 

yard declared: “some people are not 

beyond simply copying our designs” and 

announced it would take action against 

what it called “dubious business methods”. 

FSG Vice President Wolfgang Bühr told 

SSG the yard was seeking an out-of-court 

settlement of that issue. He noted that 

FSG was open to licensing and had in fact 

last year sold licences for eight 3,750 lane 

metre vessels to A. P. Møller Mærsk’s Lindø 

Shipyard. They enabled that yard to enter 

ro-ro newbuilding at a time when it was 

short of container ship orders. 


Bühr acknowledges that FSG cannot hope 

to compete with Korean or Chinese prices. 

However the German yard could compete 

in other sectors, he said, stressing that the 

key factors were quality, capability and value 

for money, along with “keen” prices. 

“We may not be able to match Asian 

prices but the key remains more value for 

money and ships that are custom-built”, 

Bühr told SSG. 

Unique double-end ferry design 

One example of that are the three Coastal 

Class ro-pax newbuildings being delivered 

to BC Ferries in Canada up to June. FSG 

won the order despite a 25 per cent Canadian 

import surcharge favouring home 

yards, and by offering a competitive price, 

a unique double-end ferry design and 

cross-Atlantic delivery as an extra, Bühr 

reported. 

Mid March, FSG named and launched 

its eleventh newbuilding since 2000 for its 

oldest ro-ro customer, Turkey’s UN Ro-Ro. 

The 3,750 lane metre UN Akdeniz was the 

latest of 14 ships ordered by that company 

and the first of a new series of four freight 

ferries. 

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UN Akdeniz is the second ship of that 

name for the owner. The original ships were 

of the same dimensions – 193 x 26 metres 

– but they only had 2,700 lane metres on 

three decks. The latest series has four decks 

and 3,750 lane metres, testimony to continuous 

design improvement at FSG. 

Some people are not 

beyond simply copying 

our designs. 

The yard’s record-breaking order for 

seven new ships was also announced in 

March, securing five years of work for FSG. 

Starting in November 2011, FSG will build 

four ro-ro freight ferries for Seatruck Ferries 

in Britain and, from October 2012, three 

ro-ro freight-ferries for Ulusoy Sealines in 

Turkey. 

The ships for Seatruck, part of Denmark’s 

Clipper Group, are compact fourdeck 

freight ferries for short-haul operation 

between England and Ireland. At 142 

metres long and 25 metres wide they will 


be the shortest of all FSG ro-ro ships to 

date and designed for restricted port access. 

However, as Wolfgang Bühr told SSG, they 

will be packed with technology. 

Drawing 5.2 metres and with propulsion 

system of 2 x 8,000 kW providing a speed 

of 21 knots, each will carry 151 trailers of 

13.6 metres and boast 2,166 lane metres 

for a payload of 5,300 tons. 

The three ships for Turkey’s Ulusoy Sealines 

will be 193.3 metres long, 26 metres 

wide and draw 6.45 metres. They will have 

2 x 8,400 kW engines developing 21.5 

knots. Trailer capacity will be 255 units of 

13.6 metres on 3,735 lane metres for a payload 

of 11,636 tons. 

But before FSG can build any of the 

recently ordered ships, there is the BC 

Ferries trio to complete and an additional 

night-time passenger/freight-ferry for the 

same owner. Six ConRo vessels for Cobelfret 

in Belgium also await attention as do 

two RoFlex vessels for the Rettig Group in 

Finland. 

Largest double-enders 

The Coastal Inspiration, the second of BC’s 

new ferries, was being handed over in Van- 

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The UN Akdeniz and the Coastal Celebration at FSG. 

couver after her trans-Atlantic delivery voyage 

as SSG went to press. Wolfgang Bühr 

said the final ship, Coastal Celebration, 

would be delivered in June completing an 

order reportedly worth EUR 206 million. 

The ships are the largest double-ended 

ferries in the world, not only in terms of 

length but also gross tonnage and passenger 

capacity. They carry 1,650 passengers 

and 370 vehicles and yet are among some 

of the smallest of FSG’s designs – 160 

metres long and 28.2 metres wide. 

ms Birka Exporter 5.765 dwt 

ms Birka Transporter 5.743 dwt 

ms Birka Shipper 5.755 dwt 

ms Baltic Excellent 6.293 dwt 

They are also the first FSG newbuildings 

with Diesel-electric drive. That involves 

four MaK Diesel engines each of 4,000 kW 

in two separated engine rooms and two 11 

MW Schottel controllable-pitch propeller 

plants one at either end of the ship acting 

on single shaft lines. 

Image plus 

The maiden voyage of the three, all carrying 

Vancouver 2010 Olympics slogans, 

has also been a major image plus for FSG, 

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said company MD Peter Sierk. He said the 

design had “popped up everywhere in the 

media and made many shipping companies 

aware of us”. 

Construction of the ro-pax Northern 

Expedition for BC was to start as soon as 

Celebration has been delivered. 

The six ships still to build for Cobelfret 

are Type ConRo 220 ferries of which four 

are being built in tandem between autumn 

2009 and spring 2010. The other two, 

declared options, will be built between 

autumn 2010 and January 2011. They will 

be of 2,907 lane-metres, 195.4 metres long, 

26.2 metres wide and with 10,800 kW propulsion 

for a speed of 18.5 knots. 

Work starts in 2011 on the RoFlex duo 

booked for a total EUR 100 million by 

Finland’s Rettig Group, which also secured 

options for a further two ships. They will 

also be 195.4 metres long and have particularly 

high loading flexibility on 2,900 

lane metres. Hanging car decks can also be 

installed when needed. With ice-operation 

capability, the 26.5 metre-wide ships will 

draw 7.05 metres and have 12,000 kW propulsion 

providing 19 knots. 

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Seatruck orders 

four Flensburger ro-ros 

Seatruck Ferries, the Clipper owned 

ro-ro service on the Irish Sea crossings, 

has signed up with Flensburger 

Schiffsbau Ges for another four ro-ro 

units with a slightly higher capacity 

than the four units currently under 

construction in Huelva, Spain. 

The four Flensburger units will be capable 

of taking 151 trailer units of a length 

of 142 metres against the 120 units on the 

Huelva newbuilding, which has become 

the P-series in the Clipper fleet. The first 

unit was the Clipper Pace followed at the 

end of March by the Clipper Point. 

The Flensburger newbuildings will be 

four-deckers with direct access from one 

single stern ramp and with the extensive use 

of internal ramps, which will give the vessels 

a short turn-around time in the ports. 

The use of four decks and internal ramps 

is rather common on the larger ro-ros like 

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the DFDS Flower series from Flensburger, 

but short sea ro-ros are usually served by 

land ramps. 

The new ships will be high-speed vessels, 

as they will be powered by a double 

engine plant developing some 16,000 kW 

for a service speed of 21 knots. This will be 

a huge increase from the 16.5 knots of the 

present ro-ros in the services. The draft of 

the ships will be 5.2 metres. 

Extensive schedule 

The new ships, which will join the fleet 

from November 2011 to June 2012, will be 

used on the two services run by Seatruck 

Ferries. One service is from Warrenpoint 

to Heysham, while the other is a parallel 

sailing from Dublin to Liverpool. The two 

services already have an extensive schedule 

with 34 weekly sailings on the Warrenpoint–Heysham 

run and 24 weekly sailings 

on the Dublin–Liverpool run. 

At present Seatruck Ferries sails with 

several second-hand ro-ros. In October 

2007 the company purchased two 

units, the Triumph and the Arrow, 

from a Greek owner. Furthermore 

Seatruck has purchased 

the Challenge and the 

Shield from the Greek 

Attica Holdings (Superfast). 

The four ro-ros are 

the four sisters, which 

were built for Estonia 

Shipping Company by 

the shipyard in Huelva at the end of 1990s. 

All four sisters are now owned by the Clipper 

Group and sail on the two services on 

the Irish Sea. 

Riverdance capsize 

Seatruck Ferries also hit the media earlier 

this year when the ro-ro Riverdance capsized 

just off the coast of Fleetwood in 

heavy weather on a crossing on January 

31. Some of the trailers on board shifted 

during the heavy rolling and strong winds 

and made the vessel turn over and become 

a total loss. At present all the trailers on the 

upper deck have been removed from the 

vessel, which is lying high and dry at low 

tide. The vessel is most likely to be broken 

up on the spot. The Riverdance was built 

at Rickmers in Bremerhaven in 1977 and 

is a sister vessel to the Moondance, also 

owned by Seatruck Ferries. 


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The Misida loading paper in the port of Rauma. There is one wide stern ramp but a separate stern door 

on the port side provioding access to the weather deck. 

Misana and Misida: 

Tailor-made but still flexible 

Forest products, cassettes and 

trailers – Godby Shippings’ new duo is 

optimised for several different types 

of cargo. Managing Director Dan 

Mikkola says that it is a question of 

which cargoes are the most likely to 

be carried by vessels like these during 

their lifespan. 

When designing the newbuildings Misana 

and Misida, the starting point were 

the demands of the forest industry group 

UPM, which has taken the vessels on an 

eight-year-long time charter. 

On the other hand, the vessels must have 

a life after the charter, too. A basic feature 

in the philosophy of the Åland-based ship- 

ping company Godby Shipping is to give 

maintenance the highest priority, which 

enables commercially successful operations 

with their vessels for at least 30 years. 

Therefore a lot of flexibility is included in 

the design, making the vessels ideal carriers 

of several types of cargo. 

“The starting point for this project was 

that UPM needed larger vessels to replace 

our ro-ro vessels Mistral and Miranda on 

their service between Finland and Spain”, 

Managing Director Dan Mikkola of Godby 

Shipping informs. 

“UPM was very pleased with the cargo 

handling concept of the Mistral-type 

vessels, but the vessels were simply too 

small.” 

Built for Transfennica’s service between 

Hanko (Hangö in Swedish) and Lübeck by 

J. J. Sietas in 1999, the Mistral and Miranda 

were taken on time charter by UPM in 

2004 and 2005 respectively, and they have 

been in service for UPM since that. 

A well-proven concept 

The cargo handling concept of the Sietasbuilt 

Misana and Misida is based on the 

same ideas as in the Mistral and Miranda, 

which have a capacity of 1,625 lane metres 

and a deadweight of 7,400 tons. 

On the new vessels the deadweight has 

increased to 11,400 tons and the cargo 

capacity to 2,155 lane metres. 

The cargo handling concept has also been 


efined and further developed to enable discharging 

and loading within the same time 

limits that the smaller predecessors had. 

Misana and Misida have three decks 

for cargo: the lower hold, main deck and 

weather deck. At the threshold of the stern 

door there is a fixed ramp to the weather 

deck on the port side and a couple of 

metres forward on the main deck on the 

starboard side there is another fixed ramp 

leading to the lower hold. With a free 

breadth of 21 metres, the stern door is wide 

enough to allow smooth traffic to all three 

decks simultaneously. 

This vessel is so much 

larger than the previous 

ones but the times in port 

remain unchanged. 

On the new vessels the stern ramp is in 

one piece, while there were two separate 

stern ramps on the Mistral-type – one for 

the main deck/lower hold and one for 

access to the weather deck. The arrangement 

with only one stern ramp is simpler 

and has no operational disadvantages. 

“The main reason for choosing two separate 

ramps on the Mistral-type was connected 

with the launching of the free-fall 

lifeboat. The smaller ramp on the port side 

is folded to make it possible to launch the 

lifeboat, which is placed above it. The new 

vessels are wide enough to allow the freefall 

lifeboat to be situated on the port side 

of the stern ramp”, mr Mikkola explains. 

Cooperation 

The design is a result of a close cooperation 

between the owner Godby Shipping, the 

charterer UPM and the builder J. J. Sietas. 

In their present traffic between Kotka/ 

Rauma in Finland and Santander/Ferrol in 

Spain, the vessels mostly carry forest products 

from UPM’s plants on southbound 

voyages. Northbound the vessels load in 

Bremerhaven for Stella Lines, which has an 

agreement about cooperation with UPM. 

The bulk of the southbound cargo is 

carried sto-ro, which means that the paper 

reels are stowed directly into the holds. 

This method is more time-consuming than 

pure ro-ro handling, but it utilises the volume 

of the vessel better. 

With regard to most of the cargo car- 

Containers being loaded by crane on the weather deck of the Misida. 

ried sto-ro it enables a cargo intake of some 

10,500 tons. With sufficient amount of 

provisions and fuel the vessel is then fully 

loaded to the mark. On a long route like 

Finland–Spain this is the most optimal 

way to load the vessel. However, there are 

always some quantities of other cargo than 

the large quantities of more or less uniformly 

dimensioned paper reels, and this 

other cargo is more difficult to handle storo. 

It is usually carried on cassettes. 

“On the new vessels we have put an even 

greater emphasis on cassettes than on the 

Mistral-type”, mr Mikkola says. 

“We think that the importance of this 


Dan Mikkola of Godby Shipping is pleased with the performance of his new twins. 

system will continue to grow, not the least 

because this vessel is so much larger than 

the previous ones but the times in port 

remain unchanged.” 

The free width of the main deck is 21 

metres. This is the optimal width for both 

cassettes and trailers, mr Mikkola continues: 

“The width is a multiple of the block 

stowed cassettes and trailers. There are 

eight lanes for 2.6 metres wide cassettes 

with one inch space between the rows. For 

trailers there are seven lanes with a width 

of 3 metres.” 

Under the superstructure there is a cov- 



A cassette with forest products is moved into the garage under the superstructure in the aft 

part of the weather deck. 

ered space, which may also be utilised for 

cassettes. 

“The reason for this arrangement is partially 

connected with the carrying of cassettes. 

When the share of cassettes increases, 

the need for deck space also increases 

and reaches the same amount of tons as 

sto-ro.” 

Mr Mikkola informs that sto-ro handling 

typically allows a cargo intake of 3 tons per 

square metre. The area of a cassette is some 

32 square metres, but usually it is not possible 

to reach a higher total weight for a loaded 

cassette than 40 to 50 tons, which means 

less than half the weight per square metre. 

“This means that the same amount of 

cargo needs twice the space when using 

cassettes. Therefore we need more deck 

area”, mr Mikkola clarifies. 

No double-stacking 

The free height on the main deck and in the 

lower hold is 5 metres. ”We have increased 

the height in the lower hold by 0.4 metres 

compared to Mistral and Miranda because 

the paper reels tend to be larger and larger”, 

mr Mikkola explains. 

During the planning stage Godby Shipping 

decided not to dimension the height 

of the main deck for double-stacked containers. 

This possibility would have resulted in a 

deck with almost 2 metres more free height 

than needed for normal paper and trailer 

shipments. This means much more steel, 

which reduces the deadweight but increases 

the tonnage upon which the fairway and 

port fees are calculated. Mr Mikkola thinks 

that the additional cost for that flexibility 

is simply not worth it. 

“It is a question of how many different 

possibilities for future employment the vessels 

should have. We decided to build these 

vessels for primarily paper but also for cassettes 

and trailers. The vessels are ideal for 

all these types of cargo.” 

However, the possibility to carry containers 

has by no means been neglected. On 

the weather deck there is capacity for 480 

TEUs. In addition to 45 feet, 40 feet, 30 feet 

and 20 feet units the vessels are designed for 

carrying also pallet wide containers. There 

are 48 plugs for reefer units as well. 

“The bottom line for us has been that 

we don’t think it is sound to build a ro-ro 

vessel if you need to carry large volumes 

of containers. Then you need a container 

vessel, which is much cheaper to build”, mr 

Mikkola explains. 

Speed and environment 

The vessels are most likely to have a long 

life after the end of their first charter. But it 

is not all about just the layout of the cargo 

holds and ramps. The vessels must also 

have adequate speed resources for a variety 

of routes and comply with the environmental 

demands to be attractive on the market. 

The vessels have been classed by Germanischer 

Lloyd and they are built according 

to the rules for ”the Environmental Passport” 

and ”ballast water management”. 

The propulsion package consists of two 

medium-speed engines coupled via a reduction 

gear to a single shaft with a large-diameter 

CP propeller.The arrangement is optimised 

for the different speed profiles on the 

route. Southbound the timetable allows a 

service speed of 17 knots, which is achieved 

by using only one engine. Northbound 

there is less time and both engines are running, 

providing a service speed of 20 knots. 

In addition to that there is additional power 

in reserve for difficult ice conditions or if 

more speed is needed due to delays. 

text & photos: 


Sto-ro handling of paper reels in the lower hold. The reels are moved into the ship on trailers 

whereafter trucks stow the cargo directly on the deck, filling up the whole volume of the 

hold. Main deck and lower hold are also dimensioned for trailers and cassettes. 




The Norwegian flagged Amber approaching the new ro-ro berth at the Atlantkaj in Esbjerg. 

Esbjerg – working ro-ro 

since the bacon revolution 

Port of Esbjerg believes in ro-ro, being 

the first Danish port to adopt the 

vehicle concept in the middle of the 

1960s. As of today, the ro-ro business 

has a central part in the master plan 

for the future of Port of Esbjerg. 

Recently a new ro-ro facility has been taken 

into use and this generated more facilities 

for two growing ro-ro services from the 

major city on the West coast of Jylland. The 

new DKK 56 million facility is now used by 

the Belgian ro-ro operator Cobelfret on a 

weekly sailing to Zeebrügge in Belgium with 

the clear purpose of giving the customers a 

way to avoid the German road tax Maud. 

The unaccompanied trailers can reach destinations 

in France, Belgium, Holland and 

further down in Europe from Zeebrügge 

without touching German roads at all. So 

far the sailing has proven its success by filling 

up one 200-trailer unit every Saturday. 

New service to Tananger 

The new service on the new ro-ro facility, 

which by the way is prepared for enlarge- 

ment from the present 300 metres of quayside, 

is the Norwegian Sea Cargo’s ro-ro 

service to Tananger in the Stavanger area 

connecting the offshore port of Esbjerg 

with the offshore port of Stavanger. Sea 

Cargo also has direct sailings from Tananger 

to Aberdeen, the offshore capital of 

Scotland, making it possible for offshore 

manufacturers in Esbjerg to ship cargo to 

customers in the British sector. 

At the moment the Polish owned ro-ro 

Amber is sailing on the service. The vessel 

started at the beginning of the year enlarging 

capacity by 68 per cent and speed of 

sailing by some 18 per cent from the previous 

ro-ro on the service. The Amber is capable 

of carrying 79 trailers on each sailing. 

Ole Sævild, head of Sea Cargo, Esbjerg, 

explains that some 5,000 trailers per year 

will take the seaborne road from Esbjerg 

in 2008 and this would mean some two 

million kilometres of lorry driving off the 

road if the trailers were to be trucked to 

Hirtshals or Hanstholm. There is no need 

to drive hundreds of kilometres on Danish 

roads to catch a ferry (ro-ro) to Norway, 

is the word from the manager to Port of 

Es bjerg’s magazine Havn og Kaj. 

The bacon revolution 

Ro-ro began at Esbjerg in 1966, when 

the state owned port in cooperation with 

DFDS started the bacon revolution. In 

1966 two dedicated ro-ros were built for the 

shipment of Danish export bacon to British 

consumers. All stowed in 20-foot containers 

on trailers carried by the Somerset and the 

Stafford to Grimsby. It became a great success, 

making DFDS one of the pioneers in 

ro-ro traffic. The same applies for the port 

of Esbjerg, which today still handles the 

export from three dedicated ro-ro berths 

exclusively for DFDS tonnage. Furthermore 

Port of Esbjerg has a ro-ro berth in 

nearly every corner of the port. Along with 

the DFDS exclusive and the new Atlantkaj 

facilities, Esbjerg has nine ro-ro berths and 

a new development area for the coming 25 

years also includes several ro-ro berths and 

a hinterland of 800,000 sqm, which can be 

enlarged to 1.3 million sqm. 



To China 

Moscow 

St Petersburg 

New perspectives 

Helsinki 

– New ports 

Port of Karlshamn is growing fast and has 

become one of the top five in Sweden. 

The logistics focus in Europe is shifting to the east and Karlshamn has 

a strategic location on the crossroad between Scandinavian Shippers 

and the new emerging markets in East Europe and CIS. The port is 

also located in a region with important industry. 

Port of Karlshamn is constantly being developed as a strategic hub in 

the east-west corridor. 

Therefore Karlshamn is steadily climbing on the ranking list “The best 

logistics locations in Sweden”. 

Kiev 

Riga 

Minsk 

Ventspils 

Stockholm 

Illichevsk 

Odessa 

Vilnius 

Klaipeda 

K A R L S H A M N S H A M N 

Kaliningrad 

Jönköping 

Oslo 

Gdansk 

Gdynia 

Karlshamn 

Istanbul 

Göteborg 

Malmö 

Copenhagen 

Helsingborg 

Karlshamns Hamn AB, P.O. Box 8, SE-374 21 Karlshamn, Sweden, Phone: +46 454 30 50 00, Fax: +46 454 30 50 30, info@karlshamn.se, www.karlshamnshamn.se 

Rabadang AB. 2008


Looking for 

the perfect 

time to order 

John Engström at Swedish Dag 

Engström Shipping stands with 

the specification in hand, funds are 

substantial after several good ship 

deals and he has been travelling the 

world of shipbuilding yards for some 

years now. Everything is prepared, 

down to the last detail, for ordering a 

number of new ro-ro ships. But when 

is the right time to order? 

It started with the ro-ro Romira. From the 

time she was built, John Engström has 

taken over the leading role in the family 

company of Dag Engström Shipping; until 

then his parents Anna-Lisa and Dag Engström 

– still very active in the company – 

stood at the helm. 

The year was 2000. John Engström 

was about to negotiate his order with the 

Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai. This was 

a time when yards were hungry, so the little 

shipping company could afford to be 

a very awkward customer with many and 

specific requirements. 

Experts lined up 

John Engström describes how he had a 

dream scenario: 

“It was a shipyard that wanted to build 

a ro-ro to have as a reference for future roro 

and ro-pax building projects. The yard 

was not very large and thus we were able 

to have great influence on the process and 

have close relations to the yard’s representatives. 

But the yard was large enough to 

have good equipment and skilled staff.” 

The Engströms had the yard to send a 

delegation of around 20 people – one from 

each competence area and with authority 

enough for direct decision-making – to the 

design company Skipskonsulent, which the 

Engströms worked with at the time. They 

also invited the major suppliers, who came 

and presented what they had to offer. They 

worked their way through the building 

specification, line by line, and everyone 

present had the chance to comment or to 

ask questions. 

“After eight weeks we were finished and 

we felt that we had had the time to really 

explain in detail what we wanted and also 

what we wanted to avoid. It was a close, 

very pleasant way of working and the result 

was that all we had to do once we got to 

the shipyard was to push the button.” 

On delivery the Romira was everything 


the Engströms had wished for: A well-built 

ro-ro ship that was a pioneer in several 

ways, with a 30 per cent lower bunker oil 

consumption and half the NOX emissions 

compared with conventional ro-ro ships. 

The building of Romira focused on environmental 

concerns and many solutions were 

completely new for that type of vessel. 

A good offer 

After a very short time in service, the 

Romira was sold to the charterer. When 

SSG visits Anna-Lisa, Dag and John Engström 

in Lysekil in March, it is obvious 

that their pride in the Romira – their own 

design down to the last bolt – is still great. 

Why did they sell her? Well, they simply 

got an offer that was difficult to refuse. 

John Engström explains further: 

ANNA LuNDbERG 

Engström’s pride and 

joy, the Romira, is on 

13,000 DWT and can 

take three kilometres 

of rolling cargo. She 

was sold to Cobelfret 

in 2002. 

Master/Chief Engineer John Engström 

39 years old, lives in Lysekil with his wife and 

two children. 

Took part in building the Helena for the 

family shipping company in Korea in 1991, 

after finishing his Master Mariner education. 

A few years later he graduated as Marine 

”We thought we would be able to order 

again directly. We hoped to order two 

ships; it is so much easier with two iden- 

Then prices started going 

up, up and up. It was a 

good time for selling, but 

bad for placing new orders. 

tical ro-ros when charterers arrange routes 

and also when it comes to spare parts and 

crew. But it was about then that prices 

started going up, up and up. It was a good 

time for selling, but bad for placing new 

orders.” 


Engineer as well, and worked in the engine 

department. Has done further training in 

welding, electronics, CAD and management. 

In the past few years he has taken over the 

leading role in the company after his parents. 

Recently elected to ABS as Member. 

And time passes. The Engströms have 

been without ships of their own since 

2006, when the Helena was sold – and the 

right time to place an order has still not 

come. The newbuilding price for a ro-ro 

has gone up by over 100 per cent since the 

Romira was delivered. There is a total of 

ten thousand ships on order at the world’s 

shipyards, at a value of close on 500 million 

dollars. 

The Engströms await a more normalised 

market. Meanwhile they polish their 

concept and keep a close watch on several 

newbuilding yards around the world. The 

plan is to order two plus two ro-ro ships of 

Romira’s type. The next generation will be 

a development of the concept, where they 

will make some charterer-optimized solutions, 

such as: 


DAG ENGSTRöm SHIPPING


Dag Engström Shipping 

Founded in 1964 by Dag Engström, Master 

Mariner. Dag’s wife Anna-Lisa Engström 

comes from a family with a further 100 years 

in shipping. 

The shipping company’s main business is 

to plan, build and run its own ro-ro ships, 

wholly under own management, for stable 

• Four cargo decks instead of three, 

• ice class 1A Super instead of 1A, 

• shore-based ramp to upper deck, 

• higher service speed and 

• environmental optimization. 

The Engströms’ own calculation asserts 

that if they add seven per cent to the newbuilding 

price, the technical life of the ship 

is prolonged by 100 per cent, and this is 

a cost that the shipping company has the 

expressed ambition to take. 

Too finicky 

Dag Engström Shipping thus suffers from 

quite some choosiness in the choice of 

newbuilding yard, at a time when the 

frenzy at the yards leads many to build to 

a minimum standard. The Engströms are 

only interested in building very close to 

their own specification, which means that 

at present they are not particularly attractive 

customers. 

“In many cases, the yard won’t allow 

the suppliers that we prefer, even if we say 

that we are willing to pay more for it. And 

when you can’t decide what suppliers to 

work with for say 30 years to come, then 

it’s really no good.” 

His father Dag Engström adds: 

”If we’ve been able to wait this long, we 

mustn’t do anything foolish. Some charterers 

say we are too picky, they say they can 

live with one thing and another – and sure, 

we understand that. Having 100 per cent 

Romira’s standard, that we can just forget, 

but we want at least 95 per cent or 90, but 

certainly not 20.” 

charterers. In the past 30 years, the company 

has been active in ro-ro, for the past ten also 

in tanker shipping. 

Anna-Lisa and Dag Engström are today both 

over 65 and now have a more administrative 

role in the company, but emphasise that they 

are far from retiring. 

“We work in the long term, the goal is 

not to build and sell, but to get a good ship 

that we can live with. We are not under any 

pressure. We can wait. It’s just that it’s boring 

to wait”, says John Engström. 

We are not under any 

pressure. We can wait. It’s 

just that it’s boring to wait. 

He has several examples of minimum 

standard with him from his trips to the big 

Asian shipyards: 

”I have seen ships that just have concrete 

in the corridors, they haven’t bothered 

to lay a vinyl floor covering or anything. 

Then plastic tables and chairs mounted on 

steel tubing, that’s it, when you come into 

the mess. Awful to see.” 

He talks about a visit to a 50,000-ton 

product tanker at one of the most 

renowned shipyards in the world: 

”On the bridge, there’s one radar at 

one end, one at the other and the VHF in 

between, so you can’t reach to do two things 

at the same time. Out on deck you can see 

badly bent flat bars holding the cables, after 

a year or two they’ll have rusted away.” 

”When you come out and see such a 

standard, there’s hardly any point in starting 

to discuss things. The yards build at minimum 

standard and all solutions are made 

to be optimal for the yard during the period 

of building, with no consideration of how it 

John Engström on 

... Vietnamese yards: “I’m going to 

Vietnam on Tuesday, for the third time in 

five years. Five years ago the state started 

to pump in money to build up the shipyard 

organisation. They saw how well things 

were going for China, Korea and Japan. 

They have fantastic production equipment 

at some yards – slipways, docks for VLCCs, 

CNC and plasma cutting machines, 

everything you could wish for. 

But they haven’t managed to grasp this 

competence, it’s like it was in China 

10–15 years ago. When you sit down 

with the yard management to discuss 

things, they don’t speak English. Then a 

little Vietnamese who hasn’t a clue about 

technical English comes to translate … It 

just becomes gibberish. 

But now the Vietnamese shipyard industry 

is beginning to get going, they have won 

major contracts.” 

... crazy order books: “I talked with a 

yard in China before I set off in December 

and they were interested in looking at 

ro-ro, they wanted to get into the niche. 

But then I spoke with the Jotun boss in 

Asia: The month before, he was going 

to drive to the yard, but didn’t get there 

because there was just a sea of mud where 

he was supposed to drive. They now have 

an order book of 34 larger vessels – with 

everything from 54,000-ton bulkers to 

FPSOs – but they had no road to the yard. 

It’s just without common sense.” 

will be when the ship is put into service.” 

There are, however, several yards around 

the world that John Engström has visited, 

where he may be willing to place an order. 

Contacts with the yards are tended continually 

while waiting for a slot. 

”When it does come, things can go very 

quickly. If it’s a yard that has lost some 

contracts, has the workforce and everything 

established and needs something 

quickly, then we will be there, ready with 

all the documentation. We have talked 

with the suppliers and checked on delivery 

times, equipment and everything. We have 

a complete concept and can just go in and 

start. That’s our advantage; since we are so 

small, we can make rapid decisions. We can 

go there, sit down on the spot and solve a 

problem, if one should arise.” 

anna lundberg 


The world’s leading 

shipbuilding fair 

23 – 26 sept. 2008 

Anne-Marie Hagström-Hirschberg 

Phone: +46 380 134-50, -51 · ets@ets.nu 

shipbuilding · machinery & 

marine technology 

international trade fair · hamburg 

www.smm2008.com



Shortsea XML 

focusing the main obstacles 

For all the efforts to sharpen the 

competitive edge of shortsea shipping 

in Europe, the industry has never 

managed to free itself from a burden 

of shipping-specific documentation. 

A study by the Maritime Navigation and 

Information Services found that a vessel 

or its agent had to file more than 25 documents 

for each port visit. And in addition, 

a plethora of other forms were required 

for such diverse use as costumes clearance, 

loading and discharge, onboard supplies, 

waste disposal et cetera. 

It was estimated that administration and 

form-filling account for 20–30 per cent of 

the total supply chain costs. The European 

Commission has done a lot to stimulate sea 

transport, from cutting down on bureaucracy 

to promote transport corridors. Yet, a 

vital part of the problem has only recently 

been addressed through a Marco Polofunded 

programme, the Shortsea XML. 

Streamlining administrative processes 

The aim of Shortsea XML programme is 

to establish a network of shippers, carriers, 

ports, IT providers et cetera, to create 

a series of standardized messages based on 

XML technology. The message forms will 

comprise scheduling, booking, operation 

and invoicing. 

By the programme the users will be able 

to simplify and streamline administrative 

processes within a shortsea-based logistic 

line. It will make it easier for all parties 

to meet the reporting requirements of the 

authorities, it will improve transparency 

and save working time. Most importantly 

it will improve vessel utilization and, ultimately, 

customer service. 

The standards set by XML will be 

approved by the UN standards organization 

CEFACT and are designed to operate 

in tandem with existing technologies like 

EDIFACT. 

Being cheaper and more flexible than 

other more established platforms, the 

XML technology is generally available in 

most software applications. Its wide availability 

and ease of use will allow the wider 

shortsea community to communicate with 

each other. The system is not intended to 

replace the more heavy applications such 

as EDIFACT used by the larger organizations, 

but these are encouraged to use 

XML alongside existing systems. The aim 

is to build the widest possible network of 

electronic exchange within the shortsea 

community. 

Marco Polo funding 

The Shortsea XML project was chosen for 

EU funding through the Marco Polo programme 

for the facilitation of transfer of 

cargo from road to sea. NorStella, the Norwegian 

foundation for e-business and trade 

procedures, was appointed manager of the 

project that began in September 2006. 

A project group headed by Mariann 

Sundvor of NorStella was relating to an 

advisory board with Simon Spoormaker of 

SMDG, official User Group for Shipping 

Lines and Container Terminals as chairman. 

The board also drew members from 

the Port of Rotterdam and from German 

and British consultants in IT and supply 

chain management. 

Most important was the group of project 

participants that has grown to about 30, 

though with a markedly Nordic emphasis. 

This includes shippers, ports, shipping 

lines, IT providers, authorities and standardization 

bodies. 


The project was given invaluable support 

by the national Shortsea Promotion 

Centres (SPC) in Finland, Norway, the 

Netherlands and France; all recognizing 

the profound importance of the project. 

Within the two-year time frame, a pilot 

version was introduced by Sea-Cargo, a 

shipping line, and the forwarding group 

VCK in February to gain experience. The 

project is to be concluded in September 

this year, and the first updated version of 

the system should be ready later in the 

autumn. 

Promotion of the Shortsea XML has 

largely been left to the national SPCs, 

hosting seminars, giving presentations at 

conferences and working with other communities, 

like CLECAT (the European 

Association for Forwarding, Transport, 

Logistics and Customs Services) and others. 

The Shortsea XML in many ways addresses 

the root of the evil, the lack of consistent 

documentation exchange systems for the 

shortsea industry. Successful implementation 

of the system will be essential to enable 

shortsea shipping to take its full part in 

the intra-European logistic chains. 

dag bakka jr 


WE WORK 

BELOW TO KEEP 

YOU ON TOP 

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construction and diving company. 

We are internationally certifi ed for 

ship inspections and we carry out 

all types of ship maintenance and 

marine service assignments. 

Although or sphere of operations 

stretches across the globe, our 

focal market is Scandinavia. 

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The ferries Vesborg and Sam-Sine on the Hou–Selvig run will be replaced in October. 

Nordic Ferry Service 

takes over more services 

Nordic Ferry Service will add another 

piece to its new jigsaw puzzle of 

Danish domestic ferry services this 

autumn. The company is about to be 

the umbrella for Danish domestic ferry 

services covering Bornholmstrafikken, 

Langelandstrafikken (Spodsbjerg– 

Tårs), Alstrafikken (Bøjden–Fynshav), 

Fanøtrafikken (Esbjerg–Fanø) and 

Samsøtrafikken (Hou–Sælvig and 

Kolby Kaas–Kalundborg). 

Nordic Ferry Service is a new company set 

up by the state owned Bornholmstrafikken 

(working as a normal limited company 

with all the shares owned by the Minis 

try of Transport) and the private Clipper 

Group. The Clipper Group was founded 

by the Danish born Torben Gulner Jensen 

and has its main office in Nassau on the 

Bahamas. The Clipper Group has its main 

commercial office in Copenhagen and has 

for some years been looking for new business 

opportunities. 

Well known 

“We had the vision of being the same ferry 

company running most of the Danish 

ferry services, but did not have the necessary 

funds to realize the idea. It was a 

coincidence that I ran into Torben Gulner 

Jensen, who I have known for years, when 

I was in the bulk business as well. It was a 

very simple task to explain to him about 

the vision and the odds: that he had the 

money and we had the vision. He liked 

He had the money 

and we had the vision. 

the ideas and the visions and we started 

the company called Nordic Ferry Service”, 

says Mads Kofoed, CEO of Bornholmstrafikken. 

Nordic Ferry Service’s first achievement 


BORNHOLMSTRAfIkkEN 

The new double-ended ferry for Samsø Trafikken, presently under construction in Perama, Greece. 

was winning the bidding round on the 

service from Samsø to Jylland from October 

1, 2008. 

“We wanted to make improvements to 

the service and not only take over the existing 

ferry and service. So we designed a new 

type of ferry with a higher service speed 

and easy access to the car deck, large capacity 

and no turning around”, says Mads 

Kofoed. 

The new ferry was based on a design 

by a Greek shipyard in Perama, where a 

highspeed doubleender was designed for 

domestic Greek service. It was adjusted to 

the Danish flag and Danish standards. The 

ferry will be delivered in Piraeus on July 

5 and will shortly after be sailed to Denmark 

for training of the crew and further 

adjustments to the ferry ports in Hou and 

Sælvig. 

“The Greek shipyard builds these ferries 

at a very attractive price compared to Scandinavian 

shipyards, so even if a number of 

things have to be adjusted it’s still a nice 

price for a new ferry”, says Mads Kofoed. 

Capacity 

The ferry type will provide so much capacity 

that reservations for cars will hardly be 

necessary after October 2008. The ferry will 

be capable of taking up to 110 cars (and 

even lorries in all positions on board) and 

550 passengers. In the new service under 

Samsø Trafikken there will be nine sailings 

per day instead of ten as of today, but still 

the capacity will increase, adding another 

1,000 private cars to the daily capacity. The 

new ferry will also reduce the crossing time 

from 75 minutes to only 50 minutes as the 

service speed is higher, but also because 

no time is needed for turning the ferry on 

each crossing. 

Cooperation with the Clipper Group 

in Nordic Ferry Service also led to opera 


The Thor Sydfyen in the new livery of Nordic Ferry Service. 

tion of the ferry services, which the Clipper 

Group purchased from Scandlines just 

before Christmas 2007. It was the Spodsbjerg–Tårs, 

Bøjden–Fynshav and Fanø–Esbjerg 

services. 

“It is our intention that the same type 

of efficient ferries serve all the routes with 

Esbjerg–Fanø as the only exception”, says 

Mads Kofoed. 

Some of the ferries on option could be 

destined for the Spodsbjerg–Tårs service, 

which at present is served by three ferries 

built in 1976, 1982 and 1984. The contract 

for serving this route runs to 2010 and 

until then nothing will happen, but if the 

new bidding round before 2010 is won by 

Nordic Ferry Service, two new ferries will 

be part of the bid from the new ferry company. 


If all the dreams come true, five ferries 

of the same type could in the future sail on 

Spodsbjerg–Tårs, Bøjden–Fynshav, Kolby 

Kaas–Kalundborg and Hou–Sælvig. 

“This could be very interesting, looking 

at it from a technical expenses point of 

view. And as we handle it all from Bornholm 

and booking of tickets is centralised 

in Scandlines’ old call centre in Spodsbjerg, 

we will have cut a lot of the administration”, 

explains Mads Kofoed. 

Painting 

The ferry fleet of Nordic Ferry Service will 

soon look like the ferries from Bornholmstrafikken, 

with a greenish hull and a turquoise 

band around the accommodation 

deck(s). The Bornholm ferries have had 

this colour for several years. Of the new 


BENT MIkkELSEN RO-RO TECHNOLOGY 

The Menja on the Fanø run on the Fanø 

Trafi kken service. 

comers, the Fanø ferries Fenja and Menja 

were the fi rst to change colours followed 

by theThor Sydfyen on the Bøjden–Fynshav 

run. The three ferries on the Spodsbjerg–Tårs 

run – the Frigg Sydfyen, the 

Odin Sydfyen and the Spodsbjerg – will 

be painted during the coming month in 

order to sail in the new livery at the start 

of the summer season. 

The present ferries on the Samsø runs, 

the Vesborg and the SamSine on the Hou 

service and the Kyholm on the Kalundborg 

service, will remain in the white hull livery. 

TheVesborg and the SamSine will be 


The youngest ferry on the Langelands Trafikken, the Odin Sydfyen. 

sold off by the old operation SamsøLinien 

A/S, while Nordic Ferry Service will take 

over the operation of the Kyholm and the 

Kalundborg service. The board of directors 

of SamsøLinien realised that operation 

and administration would be hopeless with 

only one ferry and made an agreement with 

Nordic Ferry Service to take over until the 

contract with Trafi kstyrelsen terminates. 



GREEN WAVE 

AT SCANDINAVIA’S LARGEST PORT 

We have been Scandinavia’s largest port for over 300 years. In order to strengthen our 

position, it is important that we continue to grow. But it’s even more important that we fulfil 

our customers’ requirements and expectations. Day after day. That includes carrying out our 

work with the greatest possible consideration for the environment. For this reason, we have 

invested in environmentally-friendly measures such as supplying vessels with shore side electricity, 

Working Ecodriving and vapour recovery. We have also invested significantly in increased 

railway transport. Since 2001, railway volumes have more than tripled, which means huge 

gains for the environment. Thus, we will continue to grow and develop. And we will do it in a 

justifiable way. Both today and tomorrow. 

WWW.PORTGOT.SE 

scp reklambyrå

EGERT KAmENIK 


With the SPS tecnique cargo decks can be repaired at the same time as other work is carried out on the vessel. 

Beams are placed as weights to each new plate to prevent them from slanting. 

Sandwich plate 

on Kapella car deck 

In January the Estonian ship repair 

and conversion company SRC 

Laevateenindus invited its current and 

potential clients to observe a vessel 

repair work. The ship in question was 

the Tallink ro-pax Kapella, where a 

new car deck was being installed. 

The theoretical explanations were provided 

by the British company Intelligent Engineering 

(IE), which is implementing the 

new technology. Called Sandwich Plate 

System (SPS) overlay, the technique resembles 

a sandwich: between two steel layers 

there is a layer of polymer that tightly fills 

the space. According to IE, one of the 

advantages of this method is that grooves 

do not develop quickly on the spots under 

constant pressure from the lorries’ wheels 

because the polymer layer distributes the 

pressure more evenly along the whole steel 

plate. Furthermore, the metal surfaces in 

dense contact with the polymer are not 

susceptible to corrosion. This ensures that 

the deck will last longer. 

Faster and cheaper 

One advantage of the new technology that 

shipowners find interesting is that cargo 

decks can be repaired at the same time as 

other work is carried out on the vessel, 

with the deck plate replacement process 

not requiring disassembly of the equipment 

below it. IE’s experience is that when 

The technique resembles 

a sandwich: between 

two steel layers there 

is a layer of polymer that 

tightly fills the space. 

the SPS overlay method is applied, only 

44 per cent of steel, 11 per cent of working 

hours and 25 per cent of overall repair 

time is needed compared to the traditional 

repair method. The vessel will spend less 

time out of operation and the shipowner 

will also save on later maintenance costs. 


mADLI VITISmANN 

New plates are placed on knobs upon the old plates to provide space 

between them. The plates are welded together. 

This technology has already been 

applied to cargo holds and decks of several 

ships. The first vessels were repaired using 

this method less than a decade ago and are 

mainly operating on shipping lines near 

England. SRC can be considered a true 

pioneer in introducing this method to the 

Eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. Prior to 

the Kapella, SRC used the method on the 

Tor Baltica in Göteborg, Sweden. 

“At first IE representatives normally head 

to the location themselves, but once SRC 

has proven to be a capable partner, and 

received additional training as well, our 

shipyard will be able to use the SPS overlay 

technology independently”, explained 

Hannes Lilp, Chairman of the Board of 

the SRC Group. 

Just two trailers 

The deck of the Kapella was strewn with 

steel plates and welding equipment, which 

is quite usual for such repairs. The unusual 

thing was that there were just two trailers, 

one housing the IE mobile pumping 

station and the other containing a pile of 

chemical containers for on-site polymer 

production. 

20 mm knobs were fastened to the old 

deck plates to serve as supports for the 

newly installed steel deck plates. Via holes 

made in the corners a two-component 

composite material was pumped into the 

space between the old and new plates. 

Magnets were used to attach beams as 

weights to each new plate to prevent them 

from slanting, and the pumping continued 

until the mixture began to seep from the 

opposite corners of the plate. As the poly- 

mer tightly fills all of the space between 

the plates, corrosion is no longer an issue. 

Peep Mets, Technical Director of SRC 

Laevateenindus, explained that the entire 

car deck of the Kapella was replaced. As 

there are usually grooves on the old deck 

surface, the polymer fills these as well and 

the new deck surface is smooth. The deck 

will not rust, even on the outer side, as 

the technology excludes pooling of water. 

In this case 200 square meters of deck on 

the Kapella was replaced using the traditional 

method of crop and replace, while 

the remaining 1,100 square meters were 

repaired using the SPS overlay technology. 

Engine room untouched 

The theoretical advantages of the SPS 

overlay technology became evident also in 

practice during the Kapella repairs. Because 




The last of the 

new plates 

is lifted into 

position. 


Two-component composite material is pumped into the space 

between the old and the new plates. 

there was no need to cut out the old deck 

to replace the plates, working hours and the 

overall duration of repairs fell. The engine 

room of the Kapella is situated below the car 

deck and, in view of fire safety regulations, 

this would have required the removal of several 

kilometres of electrical cables and pipes 

for the duration of the welding work with 

their subsequent re-installation. It should 

be noted that the engine room was being 

repaired at the same time, as the lower layer 

of plates did not overheat while the deck was 

being replaced using the new method. 

Composite materials serve as insulation 

as well, reducing fire hazard, structural 

noise and vibration levels. The next vessel 

on which the car deck will be repaired by 

SRC using the new technology is the ro-ro 

vessel Finnforest. 

madli vitismann


fleet news 

Editor: Pär-Henrik Sjöström ~ Phone: +358 2 242 62 50 ~ E-mail: par-henrik@shipgaz.com 

New Margrethe Mærsk from Lindø 

A. P. Møller-Mærsk has taken delivery 

of the first of six in a new series of container 

ships from their in-house shipyard 

at Odense. The vessel is the Margrethe 

Mærsk and along with its sisters it will be 

the last container ship from the shipyard in 

Odense for quite some time. 

A. P. Møller-Mærsk will not need container 

ships in the giant size for some years 

and at the same time the shipyard has 

signed up for a number of other vessels, 

covering capacity until 2011. During this 

time the yard will build several ro-ro vessels 

as well as cape size bulk carriers and 

a couple of naval vessels for the Danish 

navy. 

Changes 

The Margrethe Mærsk, hull no. 211, is 

a slightly changed version of the Gerd 

Mærsk, which was delivered in February 

2006. The change is amongst other things 

that it has been lengthened by some five 

metres, from the Gerd Mærsk’s 367.2 m to 

371.0 m on the Margrethe Mærsk. There 

has also been a change in the layout of the 

accommodation block, which is larger than 

The third cruise vessels of the Freedomclass, 

the Independence of the Seas, will be 

delivered by Aker Yards Turku shipyard to 

Royal Caribbean in April 2008. During the 

on the G-class vessels. Furthermore, the 

shipyard has changed the wave-breaker on 

the bow of the vessel. It has been diminished 

in order to save tons on board. The 

wave-breaker on the previous vessel contained 

some 800 tons of steel. 

first week of April the 339 metres long and 

38,6 metres wide ship underwent sea trials 

in the Northern Baltic Sea. Together with 

her sister vessels Freedom of the Seas and 

The Margrethe Mærsk is 115,700 DWT 

and has a capacity of around 9,000 TEUs. 

The vessel is powered by a Wärtsilä 

12TFlex96C engine developing 67,700 kW 

for a service speed in excess of 25 knots. 


European debut for Independence of the Seas 

The Independence of the Seas leaving for sea trials on 31 March 2008. 


The new Margrethe Mærsk leaving the shipyard at Odense for sea trials. 

Liberty of the Seas delivered in 2006 and 

2007 respectively, the 160,000 GT Independent 

of the Seas is the largest cruise vessel 

in the world. 

In May 2008 the Independence of the 

Seas will make her debut on the European 

cruise market with sailings from her baseport 

Southampton to the Canary Islands 

and the Mediterranean until late autumn 

2008. The vessel will be the largest ship 

ever to be home-ported in Europe. The 

European season ends with a Transatlantic 

cruise to Florida on 6 November. 

After that the Independence of the Seas 

will be employed in the Caribbean with 

Fort Lauderdale as home port until she 

again sails for European waters in April 

2009. 



technical news 

Editor: Robert Hermansson ~ Phone: +46 40 15 61 44 ~ E-mail: robert@shipgaz.com 

Afloat repair of jack-up rig 

UMC International plc has recently 

designed, built and installed a cofferdam 

system that allowed the afloat repair of 

spudcans of a jack up oilrig. 

The challenge was to create a dry working 

area around the support feet (spudcans) 

of a jack up oil rig so that repairs could 

be done on the top surfaces of each foot. 

The cofferdam system had to completely 

enclose each of the spudcans in turn and 

seal against the underside of the rig hull. 

When in position the area around and 

above the spudcan would be drained down 

to allow surface workers to carry out the 

weld repairs. 

The work was carried out in Esbjerg, 

Denmark, with only ten metres of water 

available and with a water visibility of less 

than 30 centimetres. 

The cofferdam 

The cofferdam is a bolted hexagonal steel 

ring with integrated ballast tanks and a flexible 

membrane that covered the underside 

of the spudcan and sealed around the steel 

ring. The benefits of this design compared 

to one in all steel are the reduced costs, 

reduced clearance required for installation 

and reduced weight. 

In addition to the main cofferdam sys- 

tem providing a watertight seal around 

the spudcan, a series of inflatable seals are 

placed between the inside of the steel ring 

and outside of the spudcan, to get a secondary 

seal system. 

The complete cofferdam system measured 

16 metres across, two metres deep and 

the weight is 35 tonnes. 

Off to Denmark 

The assembly was transported to Denmark 

and once the rig was berthed the cofferdam 

was lowered into the water and using airlift 

bags transferred to the rig. When there, 

it was submerged by adjusting the built-in 

buoyancy tanks and fleeted under the rig 

using chainblocks. 

When in position, over the spudcan and 

up against the hull, air was connected to 

the ballast tanks and the resultant upthrust 

forced the cofferdam against the hull compressing 

the main seal that interacted with 

the rig and cofferdam, sealing the entire 

system to the environment outside. 

Pumps were installed into the leg well 

from the upper deck of the rig to extract 

the water. When fully drained and the 

complete cofferdam system fully secured 

to the rig, the workers could carry out the 

job in a dry environment. 

ToxiRAE – new family of toxic gas tools 

RAE Systems Inc. in San Jose Ca. is introducing 

the ToxiRAE 3 family of single-gas 

monitors and the AutoRAE Lite bump 

test and calibration station. 

ToxiRAE 3 features a stainless steel 

front cover to withstand harsh environments 

and is available in three models: 

One for Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), one 

for high-range carbon monoxide (CO) 

and another one for low-range carbon 

monoxide. 

Safety certificates 

All the monitors have US, Canada, EU 

and global IECEX safety certificates for 

use in hazardous environments. The 

monitors also have a rugged stainless steel 

The cofferdam is a bolted hexagonal 

ring of steel. 

For more information, please contact: 

Penny Sparrowhawk 

Tel: +44 (0) 1752 698-578 

E-mail: penny.sparrowhawk@umc-int.com 

www.umc.co.uk 

cover for use in dirty environments. The 

AutoRAE Lite bump test and calibration 

station work together with the monitors 

to check for proper alarm levels and to 

calibrate as required. AutoRAE Lite is 

suitable for large corporate users who 

want to keep records of all calibration 

and alarm data. 

The AutoRAE Lite bump test and calibration 

station is small enough to be installed 

where it is needed, even vehicle mounted, 

and it provides a 12-second bump test or a 

full calibration in two minutes. 


Bob Durstenfeld, Tel. +1 408 952 8402 

E-mail: bdurstenfeld@raesystems.com 

www.raesystems.com/products/toxirae3 


it & communications 

Editor: Petter Arentz ~ Phone +47 33 40 12 00 ~ E-mail: petter@shipgaz.com 

Matching of buyers 

and sellers 

The maritime e-marketplace ShipServ 

recently announced two major enhancements 

to its services to transform the 

matching of buyers and sellers of ship supplies, 

services and parts. 

Suppliers are now able to upload their 

catalogues onto ShipServ’s online search 

and sourcing tool: ShipServ Pages. 

Further on, pages are now including 

advanced ShipServ TradeNet matching 

functionality. TradeNet represents an information 

source to extend pages searches. 

During last year one hundred buying 

organisations used TradeNet and bought 

for USD 750m worth of ship supplies from 

5,000 suppliers. 

Who’s who and who’s done what 

With TradeNet matching, buyers will be 

shown those suppliers that have a history 

in TradeNet of providing the product they 

are searching for. 

The two new developments are improving 

the benefits for both buyers and sellers. 

“Pages is rapidly becoming the who’s 

who of the suppliers world and TradeNet 

the who’s done what”, says Paul Ostergaard, 

CEO ShipServ. 

Combining the two and adding uploadable 

supplier catalogues gives buyers a comprehensive, 

searchable information source. 


Lone K. Jensen, Tel: +45 3341 1070 

E-mail: ljensen@shipserv.com 

www.shipserv.com 

www.shipserv.com/pages 

Integrated weather 

information 

The operator of umc.global network, Becker 

Marine Systems Communication, and 

ClearPoint Weather, a provider of global 

weather information services have established 

a strategic partnership. The terms 

of the agreement state that Becker Marine 

Systems Communication will integrate 

the ClearPoint High Definition Weather 

Service into the umc.global network. The 

service will provide up-to-date and detailed 

weather information for vessels around the 

world. 

Search is over 

The integration of ClearPoint High Definition 

Weather provides the latest weather 

information and weather forecasts at 

sea for anyone using the umc.global network. 

With the new service the navigators on 

board no longer have to search for weather 

data from the wide range of weather services 

via Navtex, radio, telephone or fax 

services. 

Umc.global network weather shows the 

actual conditions at the vessel’s location, 

tracks the vessel and sends alerts when its 

time to change position. As the service has 

advanced predictive technology, umc.global 

network weather allows navigators to 

anticipate changes in weather conditions 

up to five days in advance. The predictive 

data include winds, waves, fronts, visibility, 

clouds, lightning, tropical storms, bulletins, 

alerts and more. 

The service is provided directly to the 

ships bridge by the umc.global network via 

wireless, WiMax, 2GSM, 3GSM or any satellite 

worldwide. 

The intuitive graphical user interface 

delivers complex data in an easy-to-read 

display that is accessible on laptops, tablets 

and other PC-based systems. 


Friederike Himmelreich 

Tel: +49 40 298 67 413 

E-mail: fhi@umcglobal.net 

www.umcglobal.net 


Newbuilding contracts in the Nordic market 

MARKET REPORTS 

Month Owner Nat Size Type Shipyard Delivery Value Remarks 

Feb Waxholmsbolaget Sw 31.3 m pass Uki Workboat 09 SEK 143 m 200 pax 

Waxholmsbolaget Sw 31.3 m pass Uki Workboat 4.10 en bloc 200 pax 

Odfjell No 9,000 tanker Chuan Dong SY 10 stainless 






Pacific Basin Shipping Sing 11,000 roro Odense 10 USD 375 m 

Pacific Basin Shipping Sing 11,000 roro Odense 10 en bloc 

Royal Arctic Line Den 8,550 con Aker Yards Germany 2q10 587 TEU 

Royal Arctic Line Den 8,550 cont Aker Yards Germany 3q10 587 TEU 

Brøvig No 4,400 tanker Shuang Dong 10 USD 20 m 


Wallenius Sw 228 m pctc Daewoo 11 USD 98 m 8,000 CEU 

Wallenius Sw 228 m pctc Daewoo 11 USD 98 m 8,000 CEU 

Wilh Wilhelmsen No 228 m pctc Daewoo 11 USD 98 m 8,000 CEU 

Wilh Wilhelmsen No 228 m pctc Daewoo 11 USD 98 m 8,000 CEU 

Havila Shipping No 97 m offshore Havyard 7.10 NOK 700 m Havyard 855 

Nordic Ferry Services Den 90 m ferry Frantzis SY 09 Bøyden-Fynshav 

Nordic Ferry Services Den 90 m ferry Frantzis SY 09 Samsø-Kalundborg 

March Bryggen Tankers No 25,200 tanker Kitanihon SB 12 USD 60 m 

Bryggen Tankers No 25,200 tanker Kitanihon SB 12 USD 60 m 

DOF No 5,000 psv Aker Yards 12.10 Aker PSV06 LNG 

Esvagt Den 930* errv ASL Marine 10 

Esvagt Den 930* errv ASL Marine 10 

Jebsens No 25,000 bulk Vinashin 10 




K G Jebsen No 16,600 cement Vinashin 11 






Remøyværing No 1,000c fish c Aas MV 10.09 EUR 14.5 m 

* = gross tons c = capacity in cubic metres All details believed to be correct but not guaranteed. 

Secondhand transactions in the Nordic market 

Month Name DWT Built Type From Price Buyer Remarks/New name 

Feb Havila Fame 2,580 1995 psv Havila Sh, Fosnavåg NOK 127 m Vestland Marine, Gdynia 

Eagle Boston 99,328 1996 tanker American Eagle Tankers, US NOK 1.7 bn Global Shipholding 2, Oslo 

Eagle Baltimore 99,405 1996 tanker American Eagle Tankers, US en bloc Global Shipholding 2, Oslo 

Eagle Birmingham 99,343 1997 tanker American Eagle Tankers, US en bloc Global Shipholding 2, Oslo 

Eagle Beaumont 99,448 1996 tanker American Eagle Tankers, US en bloc Global Shipholding 2, Oslo 

Lygra 2,719 1979 roro Goliat Shipping, Oslo USD 3.7 m Lithuania 

Normand Titan 2,350 1985 supply Trym Titan KS, Skudeneshavn USD 20 m undiscl 

Normand Trym 2,250 1984 supply Trym Titan KS, Skudeneshavn USD 20 m undiscl 

Rem Supporter 3,200 2008 supply Rem Offshore, Fosnavåg NOK 200 m undiscl 

Meriom Pride 38,900 2004 tanker Overseas Mar, Singapore USD 44.8 m A P Møller Maersk, Cph 

Ranfoss 4,540 1990 container Nordvest Sh, Mo i Rana USD 5.85 m undisclosed 

Triton af Göteborg 1,563 1979 tanker BRP Rederi, Göteborg Jacob Einarsen, Karmøy 

Atlantic Vigour 1,155 1974 fishing Clearwater Seafoods, Halifax Haugaland Sh, Haugesund 

Sveafjord 9141974 sideloader Eidshaug Rederi, Namsos NOK 12.5 m Vaage Ship Mng, Bergen 

Cala Palmira 14,717 1995 container Reederei Buss, Leer USD 19.5 m Container Leasing, Lyngby 

Jork 14,700 1996 container R R Fischer, Stade USD 19.5 m Hansen & Lange, Cph 

Bernhard S 14,454 1995 container Rudolf Schepers, Hamburg USD 21.2m Hansen & Lange, Cph 

Geofjord 1,978 1984 subsea DOF Subsea, Bergen USD 49.75 m Malaysia 

Skandi Hercules 3,616 2002 supply DOF ASA, Austevoll USD 100 m undiscl 



Secondhand transactions in the Nordic market 

Month Name DWT Built Type From Price Buyer Remarks/New name 

Sea Leopard 94,993 1990 tanker Seatankers, Oslo USD 20 m Chinese, for conv 

Sea Panther 97,112 1990 tanker Seatankers, Oslo USD 20 m Chinese, for conv 

Emmy 670 1956 bulk Fosenfrakt, Trondheim Molde Sjøtransport, Molde 

Mira Nor 3,240 1981 bulk Hagland Sh, Haugesund Uruguay 

Viking Staffa 1,210* 1974 errv Vroon Offshore, Breskens KEM Offshore, Esbjerg 

Dorada 1,157* 1991 guard Byron Marine, Falklands Esvagt, Esbjerg 

BW Eagle 75,000c 1978 LPG BW Gas, Oslo breaking 

Theofana M 64,000 1982 bulk Rainbow Shipmngm, Greece USD 31 m Lorentzen Skibs, Oslo 

Faxborg 790 1967 bulk Lyn APS, Nørresundby Chile 

Poseidon 1,042 1970 dry cargo Einar Sørensen, Hadsund Chile 

Landy 4,601 1992 dry cargo Olestra OU, Tallinn Nordgrens Rederi, Ö-vik 

Beffen 19,700 2007 tanker Bryggen Tankers, Bergen USD 50 m Stealth Maritime, Greece 

March Siteam Merkur 41,985 1981 tanker Eitzen Chemical, Oslo undisclosed 

Finnpulp 10,300 2002 roro Finnpulp Ltd, London EUR 121 m Finnlines, Helsinki 

Finnmill 10,300 2002 roro Finnmill Ltd, London en bloc Finnlines, Helsinki 

Finnhawk 8,699 2001 roro Parlines Roro, Oslo en bloc Finnlines, Helsinki 

Finnkraft 8,702 2001 roro Parlines Roro II, Oslo en bloc Finnlines, Helsinki 

Nord Wave 53,489 2005 bulk DS Norden, Cph USD 73 m Star Bulk Carriers, Greece 

Bro Erik 37,000 2005 tanker Broström Tankers, Göteborg Furetank, Donsö Furevik 

BW Strand 75,680c 1982 LPG BW Gas, Oslo USD 13.9 m Benelux, Greece 

Sandviken 34,750 1986 bulk Viken Shipping, Bergen USD 38.0 m Algoma Central, Canada 

Daviken 34,750 1987 bulk Viken Shipping, Bergen en bloc Algoma Central, Canada 

Goviken 34,750 1987 bulk Viken Shipping, Bergen en bloc Algoma Central, Canada 

Tor Maxima 8,500 1978 roro Goliat Shipping, Oslo P&O Ferries, London 

Stoc Petrea 4,500 2004 tanker Stoc Tankers, Stockholm Sirius Rederi, Donsö 

Stoc Regina 4,500 2005 tanker Stoc Tankers, Stockholm Sirius Rederi, Donsö 

Skolten 17,000 2008 tanker Bryggen Tankers, Bergen 10 yrs bb back Ship Finance Intl, US 

Skuten 17,000 2008 tanker Bryggen Tankers, Bergen 10 yrs bb back Ship Finance Intl, US 

Sea Tiger 94,000 1989 tanker John Fredriksen, Oslo USD 21 m Eternal Shipping, China 

Star Evanger 44,959 1980 bulk Masterbulk,Singapore USD 25.2 m Bogazzi, Italy 

Bow Condor 27,950 1978 tanker Odfjell Vapores, Chile breaking 

Bow Lancer 35,100 1980 tanker Odfjell, Bergen undisclosed 

BW Munin 27,980c 1989 LPG BW Gas, Oslo USD 32 m Edda Gas, Oslo tc back 

Alliance 2,440 1980 dry cargo Lighthouse Sh, Flekkefjord Danish buyer 

April Madzy 11.065 1976 bulk Red AB Donsötank, Donsö Italy 

* = gross tons c = capacity in cubic metres All details believed to be correct but not guaranteed. 

Triton av Göteborg, 

built in 1979 as Esso 

Harstad at Skaalurens 

Skibsbyggeri, Norway. 


KRISTER båNG

Rates and fixtures week 15 

Shortsea dry bulk market report 

Baltic. Baltic continues to firm up as 

tonnage availability in all sizes remains 

scarce. There is good output of both steels 

and forest products which have proven 

hard to cover in the spot market with very 

few positions to work. 3,000 mt steels from 

Lower Baltic to ECUK has been covered at 

EUR low 20’ties while 1,000 mt of generals 

from Denmark inside Skaw to N.Spain 

was covered at EUR 67,000 lump sum this 

week. As a result owners have become more 

bullish, and are pushing for higher rates. 

Activity level: Firming up 

Scandinavia. Tonnage availability along 

the coast of Norway has also become very 

tight as most ships are fixed well ahead. 

Charterers are struggling to get away with 

spot orders as well as re-lets from Norway 

to Continent and French Bay while owners 

are taking advantage of the obvious under 

supply. Bunkers prices have climbed even 

higher, breaking through the USD 1,100 

p/mt barrier in major bunker positions this 

week. 

Activity level: Firming Up 

UK/Continent. The Continent market 

seems to be holding it’s own presently. Having 

said that it remains clear that climbing 

bunkers prices are pushing rates somewhat 

higher at the same time as a record weak 

US dollar naturally has an effect on rates. 

3,000 mt of meal from ARAG to Irish Sea 

is still being fixed in region of GBP 15 p/ 

mt while 1,200 mt of coal from ARAG 

earningS eStiMateS on t/C 

BaSiS per day (Modern, Box) 

Size Week 15 Week 14 

1,250 DWT EUR 1,950 EUR 1,925 

1,750 DWT EUR 2,150 EUR 2,100 

2,500 DWT EUR 2,650 EUR 2,600 

3,500 DWT EUR 3,650 EUR 3,600 

6,500 DWT EUR 5,500 EUR 5,400 

MarKet SnapShotS 

Week 15 Week 14 

Brent USD 109.21 USD 102.80 

MGO Rotterdam USD 1,060.50 USD 937.50 

IFO180 Rotterdam USD 530.50 USD 501.50 

EUR/USD 1.59 1.56 

7,000 

6,000 

5,000 

4,000 

3,000 

2,000 

1,000 

20 

25 

to N.Scotland are seeing close to GBP 20 

p/mt presently. Brokers are reporting of 

acceptable tonnage availability in ARAG 

area resulting in minor changes from previous 

weeks. 


Mediterranean. The Mediterranean market 

is seeing continuous brisk activity both 

in Eastern and Western areas with limited 

tonnage availability in all sizes. Cargoes 

remain unfixed for several days while Charterers 

ideas are pushed higher. Charterers 

have been looking to pay in region of EUR 

13–15 p/mt for 3,000 mt parcels of wheat 

from S.France to WC Italy, but with very 

limited interest from owners. On 3,000 


earning estimates past 12 months 

EUR/day 

■ 1,000–1,500 DWT ■ 1,500–2,000 DWT ■ 2,000–3,000 DWT 

■ 3,000–4,000 DWT ■ 6,000–7,000 DWT 

mt parcels of steels from Turkey to ARAG 

Charterers have sought to fix below EUR 

40 p/mt while owners have been pushing 

for rates closer to EUR 45 p/mt. 


Fixtures 

– 1,200 mt fish meal EC Iceland/N.Norway 

fixed EUR 40 p/mt basis selfdischarge 

– 3,000 mt aggregates SC Norway/German 

Baltic fixed EUR 7.50 p/mt 

– 3,000 mt wheat S.France/Sicily fixed 

EUR 16 p/mt 

– 4,000 mt minerals Span Med/North Sea 

fixed EUR 26 p/mt 

norbroker shipping & trading as, 

flekkefjord, norway 


30 

35 

25.000 shipping 

professionals 

read this ad 

Advertise in Scandinavian Shipping Gazette. www.shipgaz.com 

40 

45 

50 

1 

5 

10 

Week 

15


Turbulent month on the large tanker markets 

It has been a volatile month for the 

larger crude carrier segments. Rates 

started to improve just before Easter on 

most VLCC routes with Gulf–Europe 

reaching WS 95 by the end of week 12. 

The week after, rates on this route fell by 

around five points, but the Clarkson’s average 

earnings estimate for a 2000/2001-built 

VLCC firmed to USD 97,047 per day. A 

week later, this estimate fell to USD 71, 940 

and it continued to drop to USD 57,415 

on Friday 11 April. By then, rates on Gulf– 

Europe had deteriorated to WS 70. 

The Suezmax average earnings estimate 

started on the same trend as the VLCC 

estimate and firmed over Easter to USD 

105,620 per day by the end of week 12. This 

was followed by a sharp drop to USD 67,274 

a week later, but in contrast to the VLCC 

estimate, the trend was broken in the Suezmax 

segment and by 11 April the average 

estimate stood at USD 75,369 per day for a 

2000/2001- built Suezmax crude carrier. 

The development for Aframaxes followed 

a different path. Earnings declined 

The negative trend in earnings for large 

bulk carriers from the end of last year 

and the beginning of this year was broken 

by Easter and levelled off after a short 

rebound. It is however worth remembering 

that this is at comfortable levels as the 

change of trend came at around the same 

levels as the lowest last year. 

The Clarkson’s average earnings estimate 

for modern Capesizes stood at USD 

105,872 before Easter and at USD 122,131 

a week later. At 4 April, the estimate had 

fallen back to USD 114,917, a level that 

was maintained a week later. 

During the same period, the Panamax 

average earnings estimate has remained 

fairly stable at around USD 66,000 -69,000 

per day. The Handymax segment has seen 

a steady, but rather slow decline in average 

earnings during the period. The Handymax 

average earnings estimate stood at USD 

55,250 per day just before Easter. On 11 

April, the estimate had dropped to USD 

48,500. Earnings on the transatlantic round 

voyage trip charter market have however 

substantially over Easter with the Clarkson’s 

average earnings estimate dropping 

from USD 71,086 per day before Easter to 

USD 52,143 by the end of week 12. The 

negative trend continued in week 13, but 

this was followed by a substantial rebound 

to USD 67,582 by 11 April. 

The crude oil price has since Easter has 

stayed above the USD 100 per barrel mark 

during the period with a hike at the end. 

The spot price reached above USD 107 per 

barrel Brent at the opening of the International 

Petroleum Exchange on Friday 11 

April. 

Torm Caroline was week 15 fixed at WS 245 for a 37,000 ts trip UK/Cont–USAC. 

Change of trend at comfortable level 

increased. Before Easter, daily earnings 

stood at slightly above USD 53,000. By 11 

April, this had grown by some USD 4,000. 

The Atlantic basin market for panamaxes 

and handymaxes has seen increased activity 

as the farmers’ strike in Argentina was 

suspended. Rates in the Capesize sector 

200,000 

150,000 

100,000 

50,000 

0 

remain at healthy levels and an 180,000-dwt 

newbuilding has been swept up by Cosco 

for a three-year charter at USD 109,000 per 

day. 2nd hand prices remain at high levels 

with USD 74 million reportedly paid for 

the 2005-built 55,500-tonner Jin Hai. 


Dry bulk freight development 

Atlantic round voyage,USD/day ■ Capesize ■ Panamax ■ Handymax 

Jul ’06 


Oct ’06 

Jan ’07 

Apr '07 

Jul ’07 

Oct ’07 

Jan ’08 

Apr ’08 

Source: Fearnleys/SSG, April 10, 2008 

TORM

Offshore market report April 

offshore rate development 

GBP 1,000 pSV: ■ 600/700 ahtS: ■ 15,000–16,000 ■ 20,000+ 

140 

120 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

20 

25 

30 

35 

The maritime offshore sector has come 

to experience a growing volatility in the 

North Sea spot market, but still with a 

firm long-term outlook. The global financial 

unrest has so far had little implication 

for the market fundamentals: The general 

shortage of energy and the high prices for 

oil. Yet, the financial squeeze will undoubtedly 

lead to medium-term consequences 

such as rising finance costs for exploration 

programs as well as for new vessels. 

Great variation 

The North Sea spot-market for supply and 

support ships has seen an unusual scale of 

variation in demand. For a fleet of some 

35 anchor-handlers and 32 platform supply 

vessels (PSVs), the uneven demand has 

led to sudden shifts between tight periods 

of lofty rates and others of bleak oversupply. 

During the Easter week no less than 15 

anchor-handlers and 11 PSVs were tied up 

in port in Aberdeen and Western Norway, 

and some vessels had to spend considerable 

idle time between jobs. 

As a result the rate level has seen violent 

variation, between GBP 15,000 and 

140,000 per day for large anchor-handlers, 

while PSV rates have varied between GBP 

6,000 and 25,000 for medium-sized units. 

For shipbrokers and owners, this has 

created quite a challenging situation from 

a tactical point of view: When a series of 

rig moves begins to roll, the first fixtures 

are usually concluded at low rates, stepping 

up as the market tightens. But for 

40 

45 

50 

1 

how long should the owner hold out? He 

might either score the highest rate, or lose 

out altogether. 

Firm standby 

The standby rescue sector for “Emergency 

rescue/response vessel” (ERRVs) is smaller 

part of the North Sea market with a limited 

number of players. This is divided into 

national spheres, with different requirements 

for the national sectors. The largest 

player. Viking Offshore Services Ltd 

of Montrose, was recently taken over by 

Vroon, and the Viking prefixes replaced 


by VOS. Esvagt of Esbjerg (controlled by 

A P Møller-Maersk) is a major player at the 

upper end of the market, while Sartor Supply 

and Simon Møkster Shipping remain 

the leading Norwegian participants. Sartor 

grew dynamically through consolidation 

last year, taking over the Rovde and Havila 

ERRVs. 

A new generation of ERRVs is now 

coming into service, relegating older units 

(often converted fishing vessels) to short- 

Text 

term jobs. Older converted supply ships 

are presently raising some GBP 9,000 per 

day for shorter term charters. 

Lively special vessel market 

The market for special vessels has continued 

to grow on an international scale. Construction 

projects in the Gulf of Mexico, 

offshore Brazil and West Africa have long 

relied on specialist contractors like Acergy, 

DeepSea7, DeepOcean, Technip, etc. In 

turn, these companies are increasingly taking 

specialized vessels on term-charter from 

owners who have invested in vessels with 

DP systems, ROV capability, cranes and 

extra accommodation for subsea construction 

tasks. Some of these contracts are for 

longer periods, but the amount of shorter 

commitments is increasing, as is the geographical 

range. 

dag bakka jr 


5 

10 

Week 

Some reported North Sea term FixtureS: 

Charterer Vessel type operation 

BG Group ER Kristiansand psv 1 well to support Ensco 92, end March 

StatoilHydro Northern Corona ahts abt 5 months off W Ireland, April 

StatoilHydro Northern Challenger ahts abt 5 months off W Ireland, April 

Maersk O&G Maersk Frontier psv 2-4 yrs from June 

StatoilHydro Volstad Princess psv 3 yrs firm + 2x1 yrs opt, end May 

Shell UK Magnus ahts until end Sept 08 

15 

Oilexco Rig Express psv extended 1 yr until April 2009 support Sedco 712 

Peterson Highland Bugler psv extended 1 yr until March 2009 

Total Island Patriot psv 60 days + opt, end March 

AGR UP Esmeralda psv 1 well firm, support Sedco 704 

Some reported FixtureS outSide the North Sea: 

Charterer Vessel type operation 

Petronas Carigali Normand Jarl ahts abt 6 months to replace N Trym, Malaysia 

Saipem Blizzard ahts throughout summer season, Mediterranean 

Eni Sea Leopard ahts 8 months from end March, Italy 

Didon ER Bergen psv 4 well programme from April 

Based on information from R G Hagland Offshore, www.hagland.com


BUNKERS AND CRUDE OIL TREND 

Week Rotterdam Bunkers Crude Oil 

380 cSt, USD/t MDO, USD/t Brent, spot IPE, USD/brl 

09 462 826 100.42 

10 473 866 102.14 

11 478 899 107.72 

12 488 852 98.74 

13 480 895 103.92 

14 475 892 103.58 

15 499 956 107.84 

Quotations Friday each week. Source: Stockholm Chartering, www.stochart.com 

CRUDE TANKER MARKETS 

Size Route Week Worldscale Earnings 

(USD/day) 

VLCC Persian Gulf–UKC C/S 09 90.0 75,600 

280,000 10 80.0 60,800 

11 80.0 60,500 

12 90.0 75,600 

13 90.0 74,600 

14 75.0 53,100 

15 72.5 47,700 

Suezmax Cross Med 09 120.0 36,300 

130,000 10 150.0 55,000 

11 147.5 53,100 

12 260.0 124,900 

13 280.0 138,200 

14 150.0 54,900 

15 180.0 72,800 

Aframax North Sea–UKC 09 120.0 22,900 

80,000 10 120.0 22,400 

11 130.0 27,600 

12 200.0 64,800 

13 190.0 59,700 

14 155.0 41,100 

15 210.0 69,600 

Quotations Friday each week. Source: Stockholm Chartering, www.stochart.com 

Only seven LNG shipments 

from Melkøya 

ssg-göteborg. Since gas production 

began at the LNG-plant at Melkøya in 

August, last year, using gas from the Snøhvit 

field, only seven LNG shipments have 

been made after months of technical and 

design problems, reports the Norwegian 

daily Dagens Næringsliv. Sources told the 

paper that the repeated stops have cost 

StatoilHydro NOK 5 billion in operating 

losses. The cost of the project has also gone 

up 50 per cent, from the budgeted NOK 

39 billion. 

Taxes and manning costs 

hit BW Gas result 

ssg-göteborg. Oslo-listed BW Gas 

reports a USD 6.3 million pre-tax profit 

for Q4, down USD 44.5 million compared 

to the corresponding quarter in 2006. The 

profit was significantly affected by rising 

bunker costs and higher manning costs 

as a result of the lack of qualified officers. 

The result after tax was a loss of USD 577 

million as the company chose to book the 

entire tax debt resulting from the transition 

to a new tonnage tax regime in Norway as 

a cost during Q4. 

ShARE PRICE INDEx 

Index 11/4 4/4 

OSE2030GI** 333.49 333.51 

**OSE2030GI includes the shipping companies listed on the 

Oslo Stock Exchange. 

DRy CARgO MARKETS, LARgE CARRIERS 

Size Route Week USD/ton 

Single voyages 

Capesize Tubarao–Rotterdam 09 30.50 

165,000 Iron Ore 10 33.00 

11 34.70 

12 32.00 

13 30.00 

14 33.00 

15 34.00 

Tripcharter Av. Earnings 

(USD/day) 

Panamax Cont–Far East 09 74,500 

70,000 10 79,000 

11 80,000 

12 79,500 

13 78,500 

14 77,000 

15 79,000 

Handymax Transatlantic, round voyage 09 50,750 

10 51,250 

11 53,250 

12 n.a. 

13 53,500 

14 56,500 

15 58,5000 

Source: Fearnleys, www.fearnleys.no 

No Sillamäe-Kotka service 

ssg-tallinn. Stella Company Group will 

not start up the passenger service between 

Sillamäe and Kotka during this year’s tourist 

season. The company will, however, 

look at different options to restart the 

service in the future. The Estonian shipping 

company Saaremaa Shipping Company 

began operating a passenger service 

between Sillamäe and Kotka in May, 2006, 

but closed down the service in October, 

last year. The Finnish shipping company 

Stella Company Group promised to restart 

the service. 


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Lit up by star-shells from the battle ship Duke of York, the Scharnhorst looked like a great silver ghost 

in the Arctic night. With a main armament of nine 28 cm guns, Scharnhorst was totally outgunned by 

the British opponent’s ten 35 cm guns. 

One of the most dramatic naval 

actions ever took place 65 years 

ago, when the German battleship 

Scharnhorst was sunk in the Arctic Ocean 

off the Norwegian cost. 

There are divided opinions whether it 

was a battleship duel at all, as the British 

forces also included cruisers and destroyers. 

However, it is a fact, that without the 

big guns of the British battleship Duke of 

York, the Scharnhorst would most likely 

have escaped into the endless Arctic night. 

The Scharnhorst was the last operational 

German battleship when she on the 

evening of Christmas Day 1943 left her 

anchorage in Lange Fjord, escorted by five 

destroyers. The target was an Allied convoy 

bound for Murmansk. 

The operation, with the code name 

Ostfront, was poorly prepared and the 

weather was the worst possible. The 

destroyers had difficulties to keep up with 

the Scharnhorst in the heavy seas and 

they came apart from the battleship while 

searching for the convoy. On December 

26, the Scharnhorst came in contact with 

the escorting cruisers on two occasions, 

but Rear Admiral Erich Bey, the com- 

mander of the German task force, lacked 

the determination to fulfil a successful 

attack. 

Operation Ostfront was aborted at noon 

after the second engagement with the 

cruisers. The Admiral gave up his attempts 

to break through the escort screen to reach 

the convoy and Scharnhorst set course 

towards the base at high speed. 

When the Germans were able to confirm 

the presence of a heavy British task force 

providing distant cover for the convoy, 

the information came too late. The trap 

was already set. The commander of the 

British Home Fleet, Admiral Bruce Fraser, 

was rapidly closing in on an intercepting 

course with his force consisting of the battleship 

Duke of York, the cruiser Jamaica 

and four destroyers. He had positioned his 

forces to cut off the retreat. 

In the afternoon the radar operator on 

Duke of York got its first contact with the 

Scharnhorst. The compact Arctic darkness 

was turned into clear daylight as starshells 

from Duke of York lit up the scene. The 

German ship was totally surprised, her turrets 

still trained fore and aft. Immediately 

thereafter Duke of York’s first ten-gun 

HÅKAN SJÖSTRÖM 

The battleship duel off Nordkap 

broadside thundered out at a range of less 

than 12 kilometres. 

The British scored several hits due to 

their accurate, radar-directed fire, but none 

of them were crucial. With maximum 

speed Scharnhorst fled Eastwards, increasing 

the distance to the slower British 

battle ship. 

When Scharnhorst was almost out of 

range the unlikely happened: A 35 cm 

shell from Duke of York hit the starboard 

boiler room and the speed dropped from 

29 to 22 knots. Without the superior 

speed the end was just a matter of time. 

Shrouded in dense smoke Scharnhorst 

burned from bow to stern and had a heavy 

list to starboard when the last shells were 

fired. Admiral Fraser ordered the destroyers 

to close in and deal the death blow by 

torpedoes. But there was nothing left on 

the surface but debris and hundreds of 

men fighting for their lives in the ice cold 

water. The two destroyers managed to save 

only 36 sailors of the total complement of 

1,968 before they had to abandon the rescue 

operation due to the danger of being 

torpedoed by submarines. 



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POSTTIDNING B

Scandinavian Shipping Gazette 8

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