Emanuele Grimaldi is plotting a fresh newbuilding swoop to expand an orderbook already amounting to $2.5bn.
The Italian shipowner had 25 vessels contracted at shipyards for delivery between 2023 and 2027.
Now, despite a global car carrier orderbook of about 200 vessels, the Naples-based Grimaldi Group has a major deal in its sights.
Grimaldi is optimistic his group will weather the impact of newbuildings coming onstream as it has some vessels that could be scrapped.
“I invested not only with my company but also personally because I am an optimist,” he said.
“If the market goes down, we already have at least 10 vessels ready for scrap.
“If the market is so good, they will continue to work.”
Grimaldi revealed that his company is already plotting the next generation of ropax vessels.
The plan to build up to nine ropaxes is being worked together with Danish vessel designer Knud E Hansen.
“So we are now in the process of studying and determining the ships.
“Very soon we will be out requesting the quotation from the shipyard and then we will assess who is the winner.”
Don’t stop me now
The order for the 3,000-lane-metre, 2,500-passenger ships to be deployed in the Mediterranean is likely to be signed towards the end of the year, Grimaldi said.
Other vessels in the order destined for the Baltic for Grimaldi’s ropax subsidiary Finnlines may be bigger, he said.
“In Italy they say: ‘He who stops is lost’,” Grimaldi said.
“But this is true because your vessel will become obsolete.”
“Unless you develop quickly in this period of very fast decarbonisation and development, if you don’t do something new [with a vessel] which is consuming less, which is ready for the future, which is more efficient, you are lost.”
Under the Carbon Intensity Index, many car carriers operating globally demonstrate inefficiencies, resulting in lower ratings ranging from C to E on the CII, he said.
“Probably soon some of them have even to reduce their speed to remain in the business,” he said.
The solution was to scrap older vessels and “ build better ships”, he said.
Grimaldi is already doing that with a massive newbuilding programme.
This includes 17 ammonia-ready car carriers, six G5-class multipurpose ro-ro units, two GG5G-class hybrid ro-ro vessels and two Superstar-class ropax ships for Finnlines.
Several vessels included in the fleet renewal programme are already entering service.
These include the Great Abidjan — the fourth of six G5 multipurpose ro-ro units being delivered from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in South Korea.
The G5-class vessel, boasting a capacity to transport 4,700 linear metres of rolling freight, along with 2,500 cars and 2,000 containers, was successfully delivered on 23 April.
