DFDS continues to renew its fleet of ro-ro cargo vessels. This is taking place through the purchase of two new ro-ro cargo vessels which, from the spring of 2009, will ensure improved services on the North Sea.
DFDS has entered an agreement to purchase two new ro-ro cargo vessels from British interests. Both vessels, which were built in 2000 at the Chinese JinLing shipyard, have a capacity of 1900 lane metres and a service speed of 20 knots. The vessels will be delivered at the turn of 2008/2009 and are expected to be commissioned on the company’s North Sea route network, where they will replace vessels that are about 30 years old They will thereby continue the modernisation of the fleet of ro-ro cargo vessels that DFDS has recently carried out.
“The importance of providing customers with optimal service as regards reliability, frequency and capacity is continually increasing in importance. The environment is also playing a growing role in both our and our customers’ considerations. These new vessels naturally provide us with better opportunities to improve customer service, whilst reducing energy consumption and emissions. New vessels are simply more efficient in their energy consumption” says Executive Vice President Peder Gellert Pedersen, who has overall responsibility for the group’s ro-ro and cargo terminal operations.
On the North Sea the ships are particularly expected to sail with trailers, containers, heavy industrial goods, steel constructions, etc. However, these are vessels with great flexibility; both FINNMASTER and FINNREEL, which are the vessels’ current names, are ice- reinforced in the Super 1A classification.
The same ice-reinforcement is found on the four slightly larger ro-ro vessels – also built at the JinLing shipyard – that DFDS has chartered for a longer period from the same British interests. The first of these four ships has just been delivered and is now sailing under the name TOR CORONA on the company’s route between Fredericia, Copenhagen and Klaipeda.
The ships are currently sailing under the British flag and a decision has not yet been taken about where they will be registered after the take-over.
The agreement on the two vessels’ purchase means that DFDS’ total planned tonnage investments up to the end of 2009 totals DKK 0.9 billion. At present there are no plans for additional tonnage investments.
Copenhagen, 17 March 2008
Further information: Gert Jakobsen, Vice President, Communications, tel. +45 24 40 00 43.