Grimaldi Group Orders Five RoRo's for $430m

The Grimaldi Group ordered five Ro-Ro Multipurpose Car Carriers for its Atlantic Services. The order was placed with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard of Ulsan, South Korea, and its value is at around $430 million.

The first ship is scheduled to enter service in spring 2010, with the others following at a few months interval one from each other, between 2010 and 2011. They are almost identical sisters of another 5 ships contracted with Uljanik Yard of Croatia, which are slated for delivery in 2008 and 2009. In line with the Grimaldi Group strategy, these new ships will be highly flexible in terms of cargo mix.

At 25,000-dwt and with a service speed of 21 knots, each of the new vessels will be able to take on board up to 2,000 linear metres of Ro/Ro cargo, 2,000 cars and up to 800 TEU of containers. Ships will be fitted with a pair of own 40-ton cranes to handle containers, project and oversized cargo, while the stern ramp has been designed to allow the loading of piece of cargo of up to 250-ton of weight.

Commented Gianluca Grimaldi, Group Co-managing director: “This order confirms the Group commitment to invest heavily to keep at the maximum level the overall quality of services and the costumer satisfaction –-. With 10 new large, state-of-the-art ships set to enter in service, we will be able to strengthen our leadership position on the Atlantic Ro/Ro marketplace by improving the frequency offered on all the routes part of the network. These new ships further improve the average age of its fleet, which is currently under 8 years”, he said.

The Grimaldi Group Atlantic Network of services, comprises a set of regular line connections between North Europe/West Africa; North Europe / South America; East Coast of United States of America / West Africa; as well as South America / West Africa. In all of these Ro/Ro routes the Group is the undisputed market leader. Atlantic Container Line (ACL), one of the Group’s companies, is the leading Ro/Ro operator on the Atlantic routes between Europe and North America.

In addition to the 10 ships mentioned, the Group’s order book includes six amongst Cruise Ferries and Ro/Ro-Passenger ships ordered with Italy’s Fincantieri and one Pure Car Truck Carrier (PCTC) to be delivered by Uljanik. The Group’s Finnish subsidiary Finnlines has two large Ro/Ro-Passenger ships under construction at Fincantieri.