Stena Line announces major investment

[Hawkeye]

Hi

Today, Stena Line released a press statement in which they have ordered two passenger ships from Aker MTW Werf, Germany. The first is due in early 2010, with the second coming out later in the same year. The route they will operate on is either the North Sea or the Sweden - Poland route.
The technical facts in the press release are as follows:
LOA: 240 metres.
Beam: 33 metres.
GRT: 12,000 tonnes.
Passenger capacity: 1,200
Cabins: 540.
Lane metres: approx 5,500 (about 400 trucks)
These aim to be the biggest ferries in the world.

This is on top of the earlier announcements about operations in the North Sea for 2008. i.e. Stena Britannica & Stena Hollandica being lengthened, Stena Discovery leaving the route & two new builds for the Hook - Kilingholme route, Stena Trader (already here) and Stena Traveller due out in May 2008.

I will keep you posted on develpments as and when I can.

Regards
Karl
 :-)

[Hawkeye]

Further to my posting of this story, this was on the builders website:
http://www.akeryards.com/?page=252&xml=A/134984/PR/200611/1087399
This is what it looks like:
http://83.145.230.161/upload/ships/hires/ferry_for_stena.jpg
On my posting yesterday, I quoted the tonnage as 12,000. I look at this later and thought it was a bit light. I double checked the release we had, it was also wrong. This site has the tonnage at 62,000, which seems about right.
Regards
Karl

 :-)