Grimaldi group company Finnlines will keep investing in green initiatives for its fleet, CEO Emanuele Grimaldi has pledged.
Writing in the company's annual report, he said: “We have invested over EUR 1bn ($1.13bn) in the past decade and in the coming years will invest over EUR 500m in new technology, in digitalisation, in green shipping for our customers.”
Part of this is its investment in three new eco ro-ros at Jinling Shipyard in China.
But it is also designing and developing a new ro-pax class concept, dubbed Superstar.
"These vessels will also be equipped with emission abatement and other advanced fuel consumption and emission reduction systems," Grimaldi said.
"We are also considering LNG as an alternative fuel. As is the case with the three green ro-ro vessels already ordered, these Superstar ro-pax vessels will also be much larger in size and more efficient than the existing Star class ro-pax vessels."
Grimaldi said the target is to set a new standard in the sector for reducing CO2 emissions per transported tonne.
He added: "It has become clear that in order to reach this ambitious sustainability target, among others, we are looking into both hybrid solutions and LNG as fuel, batteries and use of electricity while in port, known as ‘cold ironing’."
The company made a net profit of EUR 95.1m ($107.6m) in 2018, up from EUR 82.6m in 2017.
This was due to revenue growing to EUR 589.4m, versus EUR 536.3m the year before.
