THEME: STENA AND SERIES PRODUCTION THE E-FLEXER STORY KITAKAMI TASMANIAN ACHIEVER II P&O FERRIES TO TRANSFORM AND GROW ITS BUSINESS QUICK Q&As: FREDRIK JOHANSSON – TILLBERG DESIGN HIGH-SPEED AND FERRY ON ORDER 54 YEARS 1965 - 2019 FERRY, CRUISE, RO-RO AND HIGH-SPEED INFORMATION FOR PROFESSIONALS • MARCH 2019 • NO.3 • DAMPA ® Panels and Tiles can be produced in varied dimensions as required by the individual project • DAMPA engineers provide detailed drawings of your project • Ceiling panels can be produced with pre-cut holes to integrate light, ventilation etc. • By request packed room by room enabling easy handling and identification Decorative and Functional Ceilings DAMPA ApS - Tommerup - Denmark Fire certified DAMPA ® Panels and Tiles +45 6376 1300 dampa@dampa.dkwww.dampa.com Hurtigruten MS SpitsbergenMARCH 19 – SHIPPAXINFO 1 Published by: Shippax AB P.O.Box 7067 SE-300 07 HALMSTAD Sweden Tel: +46 (0)35 218370 Fax: +46 (0)35 130129 E-mail: info@shippax.se Visiting address: Horngatan 4 SE-302 33 HALMSTAD Sweden Website: www.shippax.se Publisher: Elizabeth Mandersson elizabeth@shippax.se Editor-in-chief: Philippe Holthof, Shippax philippe.holthof@shippax.se Advertising: advertising@shippax.se Statistics: statistics@shippax.se Subscriptions and Accounts: subscription@shippax.se Graphic production: shipproduction@shippax.se Photographers: Frank Behling Christian Costa George Giannakis Søren Lund Hviid Marc Ottini Contributing correspondents: Australia Dale Crisp Canada Aaron Saunders Croatia Neven Jerkovic Finland Eero Mäkinen France Nikias Ioannidis Bruno Jonathan Germany Frank Behling Christian Eckardt Frederik Erdmann Kai Ortel Greece David Glass Italy Angelo Scorza Japan Tsuyoshi Ishiyama Norway Magne A. Røe Poland Peter B. Starenczak Portugal Luís Miguel Correia Spain Mike Barker Alan Lam U.K. Russell Plummer Bruce Peter Susan Parker USA Art Sbarsky Founder: Arne Steving, in 1965 Printers: Danagård Litho, Ödeshög Contributing correspondents and news items do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors. Information believed to be correct but cannot be guaranteed. No reprint or further distribution without permission. SHIPPAX INFO is owned by Shippax AB, reg no 556937-9414. ISSN 1102-934X © SHIPPAXINFO CHINA – THE NEW EUROPE I recently travelled to China to visit three shipyards – Tianjin Xingang Shipyard, AVIC Weihai Shipyard, and Guangzhou Shipyard International and North Sea Offshore Technology, a turnkey contractor. The name of the latter is somewhat misleading. Al- though the Yantai-based company won its spurs in the offshore industry through supply- ing helicopter platforms, it has gradually evolved into a leading turnkey supplier, having joined forces with European partners. When travelling for business – alone or in a small group – in China, language can still be a barrier, but there is usually a driver and someone who is fluent in English at your disposal. Mind you, Chinese are extremely well-organised and the driver will always be there dead on time (if not before) – regardless of the time of the day or night. Don’t try to rent a car – the driving culture there is very different to what Europeans and Americans are used to and, more importantly, you need to be in possession of a Chinese driving license. Even at an international airport language can be something of an issue. I was travelling alone from Shenzhen to Beijing. Situated next to Hong Kong, Shenzhen, until the early 1980s an insignificant fishing village at the mouth of the Pearl River, is today one of the fastest growing cosmopolitan cities on this planet. It is locally known as the ‘New Shanghai’. Even so, when checking in my luggage at the state-of-the-art airport, nobody could communicate with me in English. Later I had a similar experience in one of the airport restaurants, where I could only pay with cash. Even in the big five-star hotels owned by international chains, communication can be challenging. But, in terms of the finishing, the room qualities are generally exceptionally good. The Chinese are learning fast. This also applies to shipbuilding. Their willingness to learn from the European expertise is palpable, be it in the form of naval architecture, material supplying, or turnkey interior designs, etc. Few people in the industry doubt that the Chinese shipbuilding industry will achieve its goal of building sophisticated ro-paxes and even cruise ships. Although labour cost keeps on rising, the overall price for building ships in China is still lower. Are Chinese yards a threat to European shipbuilding? They definitely are – at least as far as the ro-pax market is concerned. They are already the world’s leading ro-pax builders. Not everybody is yet convinced, however, of China’s capability, as landing orders is one thing, but building and delivering on time is another. Indeed, outfitting remains its Achil- les heel, but even in this field the Chinese are learning fast. I recently had a long conversation with Emanuele Grimaldi in his Naples office. Although many of his group’s ships were built in China, he was somehow confident that automa- tion, robotisation, and AI would improve the competitiveness of European yards. Later, when I raised this point with a naval architect who had projects in both Europe and China, he remarked: “What European shipyards? There are almost no yards left.” Indeed, many European ro-pax builders have disappeared. There are only a handful of medium-sized and small yards in existence today, together with the ‘big two’ cruise ship builders – Fincantieri and Meyer Group. However, traditional ro-pax builders like Rauma Marine Constructions and Barreras are back in the game and hopefully will remain suc- cessful in their niche markets. The recent problems at Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft – Europe’s number one ro- pax builder – and Uljanik are nevertheless a worrying example of continuing struggle. It is now undoubtedly a game of survival of the fittest in what is essentially a marginal enterprise in shipbuilding. Philippe HolthofSHIPPAXINFO – MARCH 192 CONTENTS EDITORIAL 01 China - the new Europe INSIDE STORY 04 EU monopolies probe into Italian takeover of Atlantique yard 06 Scottish ports set to get one million cruise passengers a year THEME 07 Stena and series production - the E-Flexer story 08 Stena RoRo's E-Flexer: the ultimate one size fits all 20 From Stena Seabird to GLOBAL MERCY 24 Standardisation and Stena MIDSHIPS 29 News 50 Statistics 54 Projects and conversions 55 Fleet changes 56 On order: high-speed 59 On order: ferry JUST DELIVERED 67 KITAKAMI: Space travel by ro-pax 70 TASMANIAN ACHIEVER II: Big and cool down under 76 Hurtigruten's RICHARD WITH re-enters service INTERVIEW 82 Janette Bell - P&O Ferries to transform and grow its business QUICK Q&A S 88 Fredrik Johansson - Always looking for new creative opportunities 7 70 82 67 COVER: AVIC SHIP PHOTOS: AVIC SHIP, YOSHIHO IKEDA, GLENN ROSS, P&O FERRIESONE SYSTEM - MANY APPLICATIONS “ It is about change. Hogia and their integrated solution for reservations and terminal management is helping us towards our goal in giving our commercial customers the best possible service.” Don Barnes, President & CEO Marine Atlantic Inc. HOGIA FERRY SYSTEMS FIN-65100 Vaasa, Finland info@hogia.fi| hogiaferrysystems.comSHIPPAXINFO – MARCH 194 It was always on the cards that we had not heard the last of Fincantieri’s contentious takeover of France’s Chantiers de l’Atlantique, its only builder of major passenger ships and naval vessels. Nominally the deal was completed last year when the Italians made a second offer which was finally acceptable to the French after some weeks of acrimonious wrangling. N ow the deal has been referred to the EU Commission’s competition authorities at the instigation of the French and German Governments. Ahead of its examination, the Commission seems to have come to a preliminary judgement by saying the deal appears to have a monopolies influence on both the European and global shipbuilding markets. This was a deal that was always influenced as much by politics as it was by finance. It posed some difficult questions for the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and it was his inter- est that gave the whole thing impetus to settle the matter. Under the first deal, the Italians would have had a controlling 55% stake in Chantiers de l’Atlantique which he did not like. Against that he realised the need for Italian involvement in the com- mercial order book if the yard was to be saved as a naval builder in partnership with Fincantieri. The Italian shipyard is also a major naval builder as well as leading the European commercial mar- ket for large cruise ships and the like. For their part the Italians, as one of the two biggest shipbuilding opera- tions in Europe, were not happy to be just another Chantiers de l’Atlantique shareholder down the list. In addition to Fincantieri, the French state continued to hold 34%, Naval Group 10%, staff 2% and local suppliers 3.66%. UNUSUAL SOLUTION The far-from-normal solution to this impasse was for France to loan the Italians a 1% stake over and above its initial 50% in a second deal. This gave them a nominal majority even if the French could take back the small stake in certain circumstances giving them ul- timate control. This arrangement is said to have come from the highest levels of the Paris Government, but nevertheless took some weeks of fractious argument to arrive at. The least surprising aspect of the latest reference is that it has also come from the Germans in collaboration with the French. The other major European shipbuilder of mostly passenger ships is Meyer Werft, normally a major competi- tor with Fincantieri for new contracts that come on the market. Another German builder is MW Werften with production facilities in Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund. Owned by Genting Hong Kong, it is building luxury passenger ships of various types for themselves. But construction work for other owners was never ruled out for MV Werften, though its position must make the chances of third-party success less likely. What cannot be denied is that, then as now, relationships between France and Italy have been tense. It could just be that had they been more equable, the matter of monopolies could have been sorted out nationally without refer- ence to the EU. The Commission is also meant to be considering the global implications of the deal. But it has to be said there is little construction of this sort outside Europe. The Mitsubishi shipyard in Japan proved itself to be a competent builder of one- and two-off cruise ships. But it left the global market after heavy losses and has not given any indication that it might return. The Japanese yard had dispelled doubts about the quality of its building work but was plagued by losses relating to frequent design changes once construction had begun. The other global consideration is China which is slowly starting to produce cruise ships for the interna- tional market. But it may be some time before it can be considered a major rival to Europe. And in at least one case, Ficantieri is a background partner in a Chinese shipbuilding project. So, for the time being, at least, the point of the EU reference seems to be to regularise the European market even though global monopoly considerations are part of the formal mandate. In a sense the EU competition commission has already done its work by giving a premature opinion ahead of what it claims will be an “exhaustive” investiga- tion. EU MONOPOLIES PROBE INTO ITALIAN TAKEOVER OF ATLANTIQUE YARD TEXT: DAVID MOTT PHOTO: FRANK BEHLINGMarine Division ASSA ABLOY Hospitality www.assaabloyhospitality.com Mobile AccessSHIPPAXINFO – MARCH 196 SCOTTISH PORTS SET TO GET ONE MILLION CRUISE PASSENGERS A YEAR TEXT: DAVID MOTT We have commented before on the current strength of the Scottish ship passenger business – both cruise and ferry. So we should, perhaps, not be too surprised that this strength has been reaffirmed by the cruise industry which has just reported a near 17% rise in passengers at Scottish ports last year to a record 794,577. Such rises and falls in passenger numbers can often be closely linked to the number of ship calls made. B ut such a connection cannot be drawn in this case as the growth in ship calls to 825 was just about half, at 8.4%, of the increase in passenger numbers. As a good proportion of cruise passengers to Scotland come from other parts of the United Kingdom, the figures say much about the inherent strength of the business. This was particularly true last year as much of the business was transacted and agreed at a time when the lack of any Brexit agreement was caus- ing many people – concerned at what the future might hold – to scale back or even cancel altogether their previously ambitious holiday plans. But not would- be cruisers, it would seem. Whatever the reasons for this, the pure statistics are very impressive. Cruise Scotland Chairman, Rob Mason, points out that an earlier forecast that there would be 830,000 cruise passen- gers at Scottish ports by 2025 “will be reached in 2019.” At the same time, he says, the one million passenger target identified for 2029 “should be achievable in the next few years if expected trends continue.” To achieve this forecast re- quires a quadrupling of the footfall at the time it was made a decade ago. This raises the prospect of one mil- lion cruise passengers being achieved five years early, or more. Unofficial estimates for this year, based on cur- rent bookings, expect a near 16% rise in passengers to more than 920,000 with ship calls increasing 10.5% to 912 vessels. Mason says that expenditure by passen- gers over the course of 2018 is estimated at GBP 109.6 million. The sector pro- vided 1,139 full-time equivalent jobs and GBP 28.8 million in employee earnings. COMMITTED TO GROWTH Cruise Scotland was formed a decade ago when about a quarter of the cur- rent passenger calls were made. The chairman attributed some of the present success to the linked and wide-ranging service sector. “We are committed to building on the achievements of the last decade by attracting still more cruise ships and increasing our contribution to the Scottish economy,” he said. Cruise Scotland’s membership now includes 17 ports, two major ground handlers and six associate members from the tourism sector. Industry leaders were predicting a strong year at the beginning of the cruise season in March 2018 even if the even- tual passenger total did not quite live up to earlier projections. The business is estimated to be worth about GBP 100 million a year to the Scottish economy. There have now been over 4 million pas- sengers since 2010. Shetland had a particularly strong year increasing visitors to a record 90,000 even if the last call of the season was cancelled because of bad weather. Included in the last of ships calling was the MSC MERAVIGLIA – at the time of her call the fifth largest cruise ship in the world with a capacity of 5,714 passengers and over 1,500 crew. She made a call at Invergordon, Kirkwall and Greenock which has a new GBP15 million cruise terminal. The longer-term plan for the terminal is to welcome 150,000 pas- sengers a year to the Scottish cruise business. It is part of a much wider GBP 1 billion project which is funded equally by the UK and Scottish Parlia- ments. What is not clear is what impact, if any, the UK finally leaving the Euro- pean Union will have on the business. Generally speaking the industry has not been greatly influenced in the past by geopolitical events. But for the Scottish business, Brexit is close to home and the industry has not yet had to face up to a done deal in Europe which the Edin- burgh Government opposes. PHOTO: MARITIME PHOTOGRAPHICMARCH 19 – SHIPPAXINFO 7 PHOTO: PHILIPPE HOLTHOF THEME STENA AND SERIES PRODUCTION THE E-FLEXER STORY MARCH 19 – SHIPPAXINFO 7 Series production is very common in modern-day shipping: container ships, tankers, bulkers, MPVs, PCTCs, and other types of cargo ships are usually built in long series. Nowadays they are mostly built in China, South Korea, and Japan. Even cruise ships are very often no longer just one- or two-offs. Carnival Corporation & plc, for example, typically uses one platform to design and build ships for its various brands. For ferries, however, the situation is somewhat different, as many of them are conceived with specific trades in mind. Vessels built for overnight crossings usually have an emphasis on the numbers of cabins, something that is not a prerequisite on ships destined for shorter crossings. But the duration of the crossing is only one of a set of parameters that ultimately determine a ferry’s layout and design. Stena, the Swedish ferry specialist, built its very first ro- pax in 1965. In the 1970s, it started building ro-ro and ro-pax vessels ‘on spec’ for the charter market. So, quite early on, in an effort to make the ships as attractive as possible in the charter market, built-in flexibility was already something of a Stena hallmark. Stena RoRo’s latest ro-pax generation has it all. As its name suggests, the E-Flexer is all about standardisation and built-in flexibility. It has been specifically designed to suit a wide vari- ety of routes both inside and outside Stena Line’s vast network. Shippax travelled to China to learn more about the Stena E- Flexer and Stena RoRo’s can-do philosophy.Next >