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Bore expands into contract trade
Through the acquisition of Bror Husell Chartering, the shipping company Bore enters the market of industrial shipping. This also means substantial growth of the shipping activities within the Rettig Group.
Diverging trends
in the bulk trades
Diverging trends in bulk shipping have left owners wondering what 2006 will have in store. After all, 2004/2005 was a period with extraordinary earnings and owners can hardly expect a repeat performance next year. As always the international bulk market is hard to gauge and even harder to predict with any degree of accuracy. The only certainty is that the fleet growth will be higher from next year than it has been for a good number of years and demand is unlikely to keep pace.
“Pride of America” Photo: NCL
“Pride of America”: A dramatic shipbuilding saga is over 
The completion and delivery in June of the 80,439 GT “Pride of America” was not just an American event; it was a very German one as well. It marked not only the end of one of the most dramatic cliff-edge shipbuilding sagas ever at Bremerhaven’s Lloyd Werft (LWB) – and there have been a few of those in recent years – but it also once again underscored the flexibility and competence of German shipbuilding, particularly when it is under pressure.
New ro-pax for island service
The Hammerodde and her sister ship the Dueodde were the last steps in a small revolution in the sailings to Bornholm. The tripling of the lane metres onboard has given Bornholmstrafikken A/S a good start in the export and import services for the needs of the island.
Royal Mary to Greenland
They normally last for many years, the ships built for the special trade of Greenland. This means that the brand new Mary Arctica will still be sailing for more than 25 years from now. The strong build with the heavy shell plating give arctic vessels a long life-span.
Germany’s SWATH milestone
The 3,850 GT “Planet” is really a significant ship of 2004. Originally due for delivery in April of that year, it was however May 2005 before the world’s quietest and most modern SWATH vessel was finally handed over – and she was still undergoing tests at the end of 2005.
First in the Solas generation
Delivery of Sylt Express to a ferry service on the Danish/German North Sea coast in July proved that Norwegian ship design and solutions are still competitive. Designed by a Norwegian consultant and built by a West Coast yard, the vessel is very much based on domestic concepts as to arrangement and operational mode.
Blue container carrier
with green profile
The A. P. Møller-Mærsk’s new G class vessel is claimed to be one the world’s largest container carriers with a confidential capacity of containers. A.P. Møller-Mærsk refuses to comment on the ship’s size as regards containers, and the truth is that announcing the capacity would be like selling rubber bands per metre. What we are talking about here is the TEU (Twenty Equivalent Unit) measurement, which normally is the number of container slots on board, not the capacity.
bildtext: “Gunvor Mæresk” surrounded by five tugs on her way from the shipyard. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen
Fesco Sakhalin –
a new breed of icebreakers
The Fesco Sakhalin project is the first time the double acting concept was adapted for a large icebreaker. Designated an offshore stand-by and supply vessel, the Fesco Sakhalin is intended to take on many roles in the Arctic offshore fields.
Fit for tough going
Waxholmsbolaget in Stockholm has taken delivery of Dalarö, the last of a trio of passenger ferries, purpose-built for all-year-round services to islands in the vast, and during winter icy, archipelago of Stockholm.
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 “Kristian With”. Photo: Harald M Valderhaug
Flexible vessel
for short reefer trade
The "Kristian With" marks the realisation of new concepts in the short sea reefer trade, developed in co-operation with shipowner, shippers, shipyard and consultants.
Delayed but undaunted
The new multi-purpose, 5,300 GT “Maria S Merian”, now due into service for the Baltic Research Institute in Warnemünde, east Germany, is described as the most advanced polar-rim research ship in Europe.
“Höegh New York” –
the fourth of nine sisters
With the ro-ro vessel Höegh New York, Höegh Autoliners took delivery of the fourth vessel in a series of nine sisters from Korean shipbuilder Daewoo on 22nd April, 2005.
A commercial vessel
built for coast guard tasks
Coastguard vessels contracted from commercial owners and built to civilian standards have become a viable way of providing coastal surveillance and emergency resources at reasonable costs. The last few years have seen a number of such deliveries, most drawing inspiration from anchorhandling tugs.
Transgard – successful
conversion into car carrier
Although not a newbuilding, “Transgard” still deserves to be mentioned with the Ships of the Year, as the conversion was so extensive. Last winter, the ro-ro vessel underwent a complete conversion into a car and vehicle carrier at Nauta Ship Repair Yard in Gdynia, Poland.
Wonsild’s very last tanker
The tanker sister pair Marianne Wonsild and Inge Wonsild became the very last new ships to be delivered to the Wonsild & Son of Copenhagen. During the building period the company was sold to Clipper Group and merged into a new tanker operator, named Clipper Wonsild Tankers. Whether the tankers will keep the traditional green colour of Wonsild or be painted in Clipper blue is still an open question, but they could also be painted in both. The Clipper Elite Carriers tankers are actually coloured half by half in both colours, something most people remember after having seen one of the company’s tankers.
Stena Paris – first of six innovative sisters
“Stena Paris” is the first of half a dozen MR tankers built by Brodosplit shipyard in Croatia to the Stena MAX design. It’s a vessel featuring several innovative solutions to increase efficiency – and thereby profitability – with far-reaching measures to prevent accidents and restrict consequences if the worst would happen.
“Fox Sunrise” takes the lead
Fox Sunrise is the first new built bunker tanker to be delivered to a Swedish owner for more than 40 years.
BRP Shipping in Göteborg is a small family-owned company who took delivery of the 3,364-DWT Fox Sunrise earlier this autumn. The vessel is operated on a long-term charter for Stena Oil and features several innovative solutions to increase efficiency and safety as well as to safeguard the environment, but also to find use for every cubic centimetre in the hull.
"Aruba" – the ship that “evoked the disapproval of the free world”
Immediately after the Second World War, Finland was in desperate need of merchant vessels. During the war, many units had been sunk, but worst of all, virtually every modern vessel – and several older ones too – had to be handed over to the Soviet Union as war reparations. The situation was especially difficult regarding tank tonnage. During the war, the only ocean-going tanker in the fleet, the Josefina Thorden, had been lost.
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Older issues
2005
Despite Åland’s tax exemption the “happy days” of the 1980s seem very far away for the ferry traffic on the northern Baltic Sea. It is also particularly difficult to predict future development. Tax-free continues, but will it totally lose its significance? And in that case, how would the passenger volumes develop?
