Grimaldi Group of Italy is hatching a project for a series of 10 multipurpose and ropax vessels likely to cost more than EUR 1 billion ($1.15bn), says managing director Emanuele Grimaldi.
The Naples-based owner is looking at designs for six large multipurpose vessels and four ro-pax vessels for operation in various trades, the shipowner told journalists on the fringes of the 22nd Euro-Med Convention in Athens today.
He estimated that at least five or six multipurpose vessels would be needed to operate in weekly services in its deep-sea trades.
The ships will be larger than the six 900-teu/5,700-lane-metre conros ordered in 2012 from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard which were deployed on services linking Europe to West Africa.
Older ships would then be phased-out by the newer, more efficient designs.
“We want to start from there to have a better ship with every technological invention,” says Grimaldi.
Concurrently, the shipowner is studying a project for a minimum of four ro-pax vessels in a project denominated SuperStar.
These vessels would be an improvement of the Star Class vessels, such as the 4,216-lane metre ro-ro vessels Finnlady (built 2007), which are operated by Grimaldi’s Baltic subsidiary Finnlines.
Five of the older vessels were built with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri which is expected to be in the running for the next order.
While there was “zero” prospect of the multipurpose vessels being built in Europe, Grimaldi hopes that the passenger vessels might again be constructed in Europe.
“But I am worried they (the yards) are so full of cruise vessels they will not take us seriously,” he said.
He said that the Superstar vessels would be larger than their predecessors, with an additional 100 cabins and 1,000 linear metres. He added the project anticipated fuel savings in the region of 30 to 40%.
“It will not take more than one year to develop this project, now we are in the early stages,” said Grimaldi.
Some of the vessels could be adapted for the Mediterranean trades, so would not be ice class.
Seperately, Grimaldi is making headway with a project to lengthen and refurbish two cruiseships with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.
The project, involving the 54,000-gt Cruise Roma and Cruise Barcelona (both built 2008), will be completed at Palermo shipyard by summer 2019.
Deployment of scrubbers and lithium batteries will help attain the goal of zero emissions in harbour, Grimaldi argues.
