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Latest Ferry NewsThe latest ferry news for June 2007 is below:
Scandlines to be sold to 3 buyers for 1.5 bln eur next weekDate: 16 Jun 2007Source: Hemscott.com German state-owned railway Deutsche Bahn AG and the Danish government are to sell their Scandlines joint venture to two financial investors and a German ferry company for around 1.5 bln eur, Financial Times Deutschland said, citing sources. It said Scandlines, the largest ferry company in the southern part of the Baltic Sea, will be sold to 3i and Allianz Capital -- each taking a 40 pct stake -- while Deutsche Seereederei will acquire a 20 pct shareholding. A sale agreement is expected to be signed next week, it added. Scandlines is a 50-50 joint venture between Deutsche Bahn and the Danish state. Alderney needs a ferry-tale endingDate: 14 Jun 2007Source: This is Guernsey Alderneys tourism chiefs face a nervous wait today as experts decide whether to allow a new ferry service to run to the island. HD Ferries has applied to operate a regular sailing linking the northern isle with Guernsey, Jersey and France. Harbour master Steve Shaw yesterday met company officials in Guernsey where he carried out a full safety and feasibility check on the HD1 catamaran. ‘We expect him to be in a position to announce the results of this very soon,’ an Alderney Harbour Authority spokesman said. ‘Depending on the outcome, he will then decide whether to carry out further checks which would include a berthing trial in the island.’ If HD Ferries, which launched with a Guernsey - Jersey - St Malo service in March, gets the go-ahead from Mr Shaw, a surge in visitors to Alderney is expected. Richard Cox, the States member in charge of tourism, said the new link was ‘essential’. ‘I think it would be absolutely excellent. Some States members have recently been discussing whether the island could afford to run its own ferry, but it wasn’t realistic,’ he said. ‘A regular ferry is just what we need both for residents and visitors and we would welcome HD’s proposed services to Guernsey, Jersey and Cherbourg. ‘It also underlines just how important the renovation of the Commercial Quay is and what an absolute necessity it is to get started on that project.’ Former Alderney Museum curator Peter Arnold is also backing HD Ferries’ bid. He believes the service would help reverse the sharp decline in tourism over the past three decades. ‘We used to get about 7,000 visitors to the museum a year in the early 1970s, but that was before the introduction of cheap flights to places like the Mediterranean. ‘Now the museum only gets half that number and the proposed sea link would definitely help get that figure rising again.’ Portsmouth Cherbourg - Low Low Fares!Date: 13 Jun 2007Source: Directferries.co.uk Take advantage of some new ultra low fares on Condor Ferries Portsmouth - Cherbourg service valid for travel every Sunday between 8th July & 15th September. For a Car + 2 Adults it's just £50 each way. Add a caravan for just £13 each way! Condor Ferries Sailing Timetables: Depart: Portsmouth 09.30 Arrive: Cherbourg 16.00 Depart: Cherbourg 17.00 Arrive: Portsmouth 21.00 For more information and booking, please visit our Condor Ferries page and select Portsmouth - Cherbourg from the menu. Balearia to spend €300m on fleetDate: 11 Jun 2007Source: Lloyds List Spanish ferry operator Balearia will add a new fast ferry later this year into its service between Palma de Mallorca and Valencia. The ship is part of a €300m fleet expansion programme. The ferry will be a sistership to the Borja, which was introduced into the company's route between Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca last month. Built by Italian shipbuilder Visentini, the high speed ships will run daily round trips between the Balearic Islands and the mainland. Balearia's fleet expansion plan also contemplates construction of another six ships, representing an investment of around €300m, the company said. Borja and its sistership can operate at speeds of up to 24 knots and have capacity for 2,225 linear metres of cargo, 196 vehicles and up to 800 passengers. The combination of speed and capacity means more time in port at either end of the service, which the company said, would allow shippers to optimise their logistics operations and reduce costs. LD Transmanche Ferries passenger numbers soareDate: 8 Jun 2007Source: theargus.co.uk The new owners of the Newhaven Dieppe ferry route have said the number of people travelling to and from the Continent had soared since it took over the service three months ago. Louis Dreyfus Transmanche said the number of cars on its Newhaven to Dieppe route was up 31 per cent to 8,000 in May, compared with 6,120 in the same month last year. The rise followed a six per cent increase in April and a 15 per cent rise in March, despite the number of daily crossings being cut to two during these months. The service still runs three times a day during summer. Last year 250,000 people travelled by ferry between Newhaven and Dieppe. LD Transmanche reckons that number could increase by 50,000 this year after it introduced two new ships to its fleet. LD Transmanche spokesman Claude Sokolski said: "We noticed in the winter hardly anybody was using the Newhaven to Dieppe service so we cut the service to twice daily. That has helped us to reduce our deficits considerably. Passenger numbers have increased at the same time, which is good news." Meanwhile the new summer link between Newhaven and Le Havre created by LD Transmanche Ferries' sister company, LD Lines, carried 2,250 cars in May. The Newhaven to Dieppe service used to be popular with tourists but things started to go wrong when flights became cheaper and the tunnel opened. In 1999 the private operator running the service closed down. For two years no ferries sailed and the docks in Newhaven and Dieppe fell into disrepair. Then in 2001 the Seine Maritime local council in France formed a company, Transmanche, which bought up part of Newhaven docks and reinstated a service. Now it looks like things are on the up again. Book an LD Transmache Ferry ticket by visiting our Newhaven Dieppe Ferry page. SNCM partnerhip wins France - Corsica ferry concessionDate: 8 Jun 2007Source: Lloyds List French Mediterranean ferry operator SNCM and its partner Compagnie Méridionale de Navigation have officially been awarded the ferociously contested concession for the provision of ferry services between the French mainland and the island of Corsica for the period 2007 to 2012, writes Andrew Spurrier in Paris. The Corsican assembly voted in favour of the award yesterday, two days after France’s supreme administrative court, the council of state, rejected an application from rival Corsica Ferries to have the award procedure annulled. The contract for the concession, which carries with it a €101.4m ($136.2) annual subsidy, is due to be signed today and the new concession to come into force on July 1. Corsica Ferries had claimed that the candidates for the concession had not been treated on an equal footing. But the council of state, which unusually went against the recommendation of its own commissioner in the case, rejected the claim. Corsica Ferries chief executive Pierre Mattei conceded defeat after the council’s decision, saying that the decision had been close but had nevertheless gone against his company. For bookings and information, please visit the following pages: SNCM Corsica Ferries Ferries to Corsica New ferry port plans would increase Solent competitionDate: 8 Jun 2007Source: dailyecho.co.uk A new ferry port could be built on the Isle of Wight breaking the stranglehold on travel across the Solent, it has emerged. Although still at an early stage, IoW councillors are keen to increase competition on one of the most expensive ferry crossings in the country. Southampton to Isle of Wight service Red Funnel and WightLink, which runs services from Portsmouth and Lymington, have a virtual monopoly on cross Solent travel. Now, fed-up at congestion in the existing car ferry ports at Fishbourne, Yarmouth and Cowes councillors are looking to build another. Unlike existing facilities, the new port would be partly council-owned and open to any ferry operator to encourage competition. Any new port would again be on the north side of the Island because of complex maritime regulations and already council bosses are talking to companies about teaming up to build the project. Councillor Jonathon Fitzgerald-Bond, chairman of the Isle of Wight Business and Infrastructure Commission, said: "There is a blue paper being presented to the Cabinet recommending that we pursue any initiative to get together with private industry to jointly create an additional car ferry port on the Island. "This would be open to any firm, including the existing companies to provide a car ferry service. If there's another port it may encourage competition. "There is no room for expansion where they are at the moment and it's not fair on residents because the traffic is horrendous. "There is also unhappiness on the Island at the fare prices but that's not to do with the brief. "We have found some interest and we think it is viable. Not only that but we feel that if we have the majority shareholding in the ferry port then it's an investment that should pay dividends and allow us to keep control of who uses it so it can stay available to anyone that wants to use it. Personally I would welcome competition because market forces dictate prices." However those campaigning for lower prices say they have heard this all before. Liz Fletcher from Ferry Passengers for a Fair Deal, said: "Of course anything that would bring prices down would be fantastic news, but it does sound like more hot air to me because we have heard this before. "What's really needed is a full investigation into why the prices are so high at the moment, and proper regulation to ensure fares stay reasonable." Ownership deadlock has not affected ScandlinesDate: 7 Jun 2007Source: Lloyds List Scandlines appears to have been adopting a lower public profile over the course of the past few weeks. Even normally well-informed sources, usually quoted anonymously in yet another story about the Baltic ferry operator, appear not to have any idea what is going to happen to the ownership structure of the company. Negotiations have been in deadlock for months. But at least the actual business seems unaffected by the quarrels. Last year Scandlines reported its highest profit yet. Its present owners — state-owned German railway operator Deutsche Bahn and the Danish transport ministry — have been discussing a sale of the operator for years. But, as they had problems getting along as shareholders, they now have problems agreeing on the right buyer. Two bidders have emerged as frontrunners — a consortium of Deutsche Seereederei and Allianz Capital partners, preferred by the German side, and finance investor 3i as the Danes' favourite. Latest reports suggested that financing companies Allianz Capital Partners and 3i are to have 40% each while shipping company Deutsche Seereederei should buy the remaining 20% at a combined price of about €1.5bn ($1.94bn). But a decision has not been taken yet. It is also delayed by the fact that the sale has been linked with the decision about a possible bridge across the Fehrmarnbelt. The bridge has been subject to many political discussions between Germany and Denmark in past months and is highly sensitive. Not even the German federal government and coastal states have a uniform opinion on the project’s viability. The construction of a bridge would also have direct effects on Scandlines’ business on the important service between Puttgarden and Rodby and so affect the company's value and purchase price. Not only is the workforce disappointed about the repeated delays and uncertainty over Scandlines’ future, but so too is the management, it emerged when chief executive Peter Gronlund resigned earlier this year. Meanwhile, divisional director John Steen-Mikkelsen has taken the helm. One criticism of Scandlines in the quarrel is the negative effect on large-scale investments. Necessary fleet renewals and additional tonnage cannot be initiated as long as ownership is not clear. This does not yet show in the figures. Last year Scandlines generated after-tax profits of €103.1m on turnover of €546.9m. That was 47% more than a year before and a record in the company’s history. Developments in the cargo business were favourable, the company said.. Sale of its stake in Mols Line last year contributed about €11m to profits. Of further benefit was the better integration of Scandlines’ services into international transport chains, the company said. Getting technical Grimaldi launches ferryDate: 6 Jun 2007Source: Lloyds List Grimaldi Holding, Aldo Grimaldi’s Genoa-based shipping concern, announced the technical launch of the second of the eight small cruise ferries it has under construction at Tuscan shipyard Nuovi Cantieri Apuania. Like its sisterships, the 25,000-gt Audacia, 200 m long and 27 m wide with a cruising speed of 25 knots, will be chartered to Grandi Navi Veloci, the Genoa-based ferry company founded by Mr Grimaldi and now controlled by a trio of private equity firms. The vessel, which has capacity for up to 500 passengers as well as 3,000 lane metres of cargo or 1,000 cars, is now being outfitted for a completion date in September. It will be followed by the Tenacia, the keel of which was laid on Sunday and which is due to be delivered next March. The first in the series, Coraggio, is now in service on the Genoa-Tunis-Malta route. X Factor stays land ferry gigDate: 5 Jun 2007Source: musicrooms.net The winner of the first X Factor - Steve Brookstein, has signed up to provide the musical entertainment on a P&O Ferries Mini Cruise, along with other former contestants whose careers have sunk without a trace. Steve will join Chico and Journey South on the 'P&O Stars From X Factor Mini Cruise', a three-night round trip from Portsmouth to Bilbao in Spain. Steve's career never really took off after winning the show and he was later dumped by his record company. As a source puts it, "Leona Lewis and Shayne Ward are moving on, but it's fair to say this trio aren't hitting the high notes anymore." Former goat-herder, Chico, is not giving up hope though - he plans to release a new album in the summer. Dun Laoghaire Ferry safe - for nowDate: 1 Jun 2007Source: icNorthWales Stena Line is telling passengers it has no plans to axe its fast ferry crossings from the port of Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire in Ireland because of escalating fuel costs. The reassurance comes just a day after company chief executive Gunnar Blomdahl said Stena would have to consider withdrawing all its high speed ferries if oil prices rose from the recent level of $70 a barrel to $100. The ferry operator has already slashed the frequency of sailings by the HSS Stena Explorer on the Irish Sea route from the Welsh port and wants Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company to cut harbour dues. The Explorer, which can carry 1,500 passengers, makes the crossing in 99 minutes, about half the time taken for the conventional ferry Stena Adventurer on the Holyhead to Dublin crossing. But Stena Line has already withdrawn a high-speed vessel from a North Sea route and says about 10 high speed ferries are up for sale in Europe after being removed from various routes. Mr Blomdahl revealed the company was keeping a close watch on fuel costs notched up by similar catamarans on the Irish Sea. For more information on Stena Line, or to make a booking, please visit our Stena Line or Holyhead Dun Laoghaire ferry booking pages. |
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