Feature, Freight News, Sea

New superferries for the North Sea

[ June 9, 2017   //   Chris ]

DFDS’ marked a new era on its North Sea on 9 June when Mrs Tutte Østergaard (wife of the former DFDS board chairman) named Tulipa Seaways, one of two new freight superferries its Immingham-Rotterdam service.
She and her sister ship Gardenia Seaways are a new generation of superferries commissioned to handle increased volumes. Each vessel is 210 metres long, with the capacity for 262 trailers and a load space of 4,076 lane metres.

Gardenia Seaways will enter service on the Rotterdam/Immingham freight route later in June, with Tulipa Seaways entering service in autumn.

DFDS chief executive, Niels Smedegaard, said: “In spite of Brexit, we still see freight volumes on our North Sea routes growing and are confident that these new ships will offer the capacity, reliability and a significantly improved quality of service which our customers will appreciate.

The ship design meets current environmental requirements, reducing fuel consumption and providing much better handling during loading and unloading in port.

Smedegaard added: “The two newbuildings represent the first step in an ambitious newbuilding programme that will add considerable capacity to our North Sea network over the next few years.”

Tags: DFDS