GRIMALDI Naples will add 30 ships to its fleet by 2010 at a cost of around €2bn ($2.6bn) after a spending spree that will see new orders for yards in Italy, Croatia, South Korea and China.
Speaking on the eve of the launch of Cruise Roma, first of a string of four cruise ferries, at Fincantieri’s Castellamare di Stabia yard near Naples, the operator’s managing director Emanuele Grimaldi confirmed that he had ordered six ro-ro vessels from South Korean yard Hyundai Mipo.
The 200 m long ships will have capacity of 3,900 lane metres and 300 cars and are due for delivery by the end of 2010.
Mr Grimaldi said two of the ships would be positioned on the Adriatic on services between Italy and Greece. Anek, the Greek operator in which the Naples company recently snapped up a 14.5% stake, may also be involved.
Two of the other new ships would run in north-south services in the Mediterranean and two more would work east-west routes, though Mr Grimaldi declined to offer further detail. The value of the order is put at €300m.
In addition, co-managing director Gianluca Grimaldi said the company had ordered two more multipurpose ro-ro car carriers from the Uljanik shipyard in Croatia, taking up two first refusals on slots at the Pula yard.
The additions take Grimaldi’s series of such vessels at the yard to seven, and it has another order there for a car carrier.
In addition, it has five similar multipurpose ro-ro car carriers on order from Hyundai Mipo.
Separately, Emanuele Grimaldi confirmed that the company was close to finalising an order for a further six ro-ro vessels at an unnamed Chinese yard.
The ships, with 3,200 lane metres of capacity and three car decks, would replace chartered tonnage at Finnlines, which Grimaldi recently took over and where it expects to confirm the installation of a new chief executive today.
Fincantieri will also benefit from Grimaldi’s order binge. The company confirmed that it had opted to exercise two existing options with the Italian state-owned builder and that the vessels would be sisterships for the Cruise Roma, due to be launched today.
The 225 m long vessel has capacity of 3,000 lane meters for trailers and 215 cars with 478 cabins.
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