Three European and Mediterranean ropax ferry operators have signed orders with China's Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) for up to 14 vessels, including what are touted as the largest such vessels ever built.
Two orders for major European shipowners were already reported this week, but TradeWinds understands the total volume of ropax orders is much larger, with a third owner involved and options on all three orders.
Brokers close to the GSI deals said it is only a coincidence that all are being signed in one go, as China's workers and executives alike quit their desks for the annual Spring Festival holiday.
The biggest splash is a joint order by Italy's Mediterranean Shipping Co-controlled Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV) and Vincenzo Onorato's Moby Lines. The companies announced this week a shared order for four LNG-ready 2,500-passenger, 3,765-lane-metre ships, with no price reported.
But brokers told TradeWinds the price is over $130m per ship for the four firm vessels. They addded that there are two sets of two options each that if exercised would bring the total price up to $1.04bn. Deliveries start in 2020.
TradeWinds understands the joint order by GNV and Moby, signed 11 February, is subject to financing. The big ships are designed by Deltamarin, the Finnish ship design shop controlled by China's Avic International.
Denmark's DFDS announced a two-ship investment totalling DKK 1.8bn ($298m). The 4,500-lane-metre, 600-passenger scrubber-equipped vessels will increase DFDS's Baltic freight capacity by some 30% when delivered in 2020.
Brokers said no subjects remain on the contract signed 12 February. Shipbuilding and financial sources added that DFDS has two options, for a total value of $596m if all ships are built. Sources close to the deal said the announced investment value corresponds to the price being paid to the yard.
The DFDS ships are designed by Denmark's OSK-ShipTech.
Meanwhile, Algeria's Entreprise Nationale de Transport Maritime des Voyageurs (ENTMV) also has placed an order for a ropax of a different type. "It's more pax than ro — more of a car ferry than a ropax of the kind DFDS and GNV are ordering," said a source involved in the recent orders, who explains that the greater passenger capacity is better suited to ENTMV's night ferry operations.
Specifications were unavailable at TradeWinds press time but brokers said the price for one ship is over $150m and there is an option. Others suggested, however, that the new Algerian order may itself be only the option on a ship ordered last April.
Like the DFDS ships, the ENTMV has turned to an OSK-ShipTech design. The order signed on 8 February is still subject to Algerian government approval.
The potentially $2bn-worth of ropax contracts come as GSI's lead among Chinese ropax builders is being challenged by other players. Among them is Avic Weihai Shipyard, where GSI's tanker customer Stena Bulk is building eight ice-class, 3,100-lane-metre, 930-passenger ships. Also, Xiamen Shipyard is building a large 2,800 passenger, 1,500 lane metre ferry for Finland's Viking Line.
Despite a considerable current ropax orderbook at Chinese yards, GSI remains the only one to have delivered large ropax tonnage for international owners — two vessels built in 2003 for Sweden's Rederi AB Gotland. The Swedish company is awaiting delivery of two more 35,000-gt ropaxes on order at GSI Liwan.
The GSI yards are officially known as CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering, part of the southern group of major state-owned shipbuilders.
The signings ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday cap a busy period for GSI, which last week delivered the last ship in a series of 13 Stena MR products tankers and the second of an LR1 series for Torm.
