German yards turn out rare newbuilds

Tom Todd writes: Named, launched and delivered was Bore Sea, the first of two new BoreRoFlex types for Finnish shipowner Bore. At the same time the second ship was named Bore Song. She is scheduled for delivery on 15 July .

The ships were ordered in 2007 for about €100 million. They have been specifically designed for Bore to transport ro-ro trailers, Mafis, general cargo, SECU-boxes, cars and containers on the weather deck. With service speeds of 19 knots they are 195.4m long, 26.20m wide and boast 2,863 lane metres on three decks with additional hoistable car decks.

The new type is propelled by a medium-speed Wärtsilä four-stroke diesel main engine of 12,000kW via a gearbox and a controllable pitch propeller. It has the Finnish-Swedish 1A ice classification.

One of Germany’s most successful shipyards, FSG has a market share of nearly 30% in the global 100m+ ro-ro ship segment and has delivered 36 ro-ro and ro-pax newbuilds since the 1990s.

It has nine further orders for delivery up to 2013. They are for the second Bore RoFlex as well as four ro-ro freight ferries for Seatruck Ferries in the UK and three for Ulusoy in Turkey. The yard is also building a deckhouse for the German Navy’s third supply vessel.

FSG MD Peter Sierk said recently he was “very optimistic“ the yard will add further new orders this year and revealed it was involved in concrete negotiations for further newbuilds.

In another positive newbuilding development, tanker specialist Lindenau Schiffswerft in Kiel has delivered its first new ship in two years.

The 51.8m, 600dwt bunker tanker Ebba 2 for Germany’s Glüsing Reederei is the first built by the yard since it went into insolvency in late 2008. It has been fighting closure since then and with no follow-up orders in sight, Lindenau MD Dieter Kühne has said the facility must now hope to survive with interim repair work.