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The Week in Review


Nick the Greek

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Dear non-Greek speaking members and friends,

 

Ever since the creation of this website, our aim has been to offer an international perspective and look beyond the Greek ferry scene and its small eco-system, for the benefit of both Greek and non-Greek enthusiasts. To that end and for several years now, we have been producing our Hellas Roundup which is with you at regular intervals. Knowing how some of you go to great lengths trying to decipher and translate through google the admittedly difficult Greek language and the colloquialisms we use, we thought we'd make it easier for you and go one step further.

 

So we decided to experiment by producing a kind of recap of the ferry news of the week, in English, which follows in the messages below. The idea is not only to offer developments in bullet points, social-media style, but to enrich them with our commentary, behind the scenes hearsay and personal point of view which will hopefully help you get to grips with and understand better the small Asterix's village which is the Greek ferry scene.

 

As ever, we welcome your comments, suggestions and questions in this depository. Don't forget to browse through our gallery, the vast majority is original content and can be enjoyed without annoying watermarks.

 

For historical purposes and for you to judge us on what comes out to be right or wrong, here is the archive of this weekly commentary.

 

Edited by Nick the Greek
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  • 1 year later...

Friday, December 9th, 2022

 

It's been almost a month since the last update, I wish I didn't have to work for a living:D. Loads to talk about, let's kick it off:

 

- Starting from the latest development which is the purchase of the Rosella from Aegean Speed Lines. The first comment which comes to mind is that the whole official communication around the transaction, reminds me of football clubs who support their manager following a defeat and fire him the next day. An amateurish way of handling this, to put it mildly. From that point on, full marks to Viking Line for commanding such a price for a 42-year old ferry. Granted there are not many ferries out there in this size/capacity, yes she is a well-maintained ship, at the same time 11.25m is a huge amount of money, any way you look at it. Especially when there are traits of the ship such as the number of cabins/berths that do not fit the intended use by the buyer. Which begs the next question, how on earth is Aegean going to make money out of this. The Western Cyclades(Kythnos, Serifos, Sifnos, Milos and Kimolos) are the company's home turf, something tells me though that the employment of the ship will not be exclusive to those specific islands, especially from the moment the big number of cabins the ship is equipped with, need to somehow be sold. 

 

At the same time, over the last couple of years the competition has intensified tremendously in the specific route. Seajets are employing fast ferries twice a day, the Dionisios Solomos is now a well established ship in the route, while Minoan Lines are taking a huge chunk of the passenger traffic of Milos and the Prevelis takes a chunk of the lorry traffic. The other factor of the equation is that following last year's blunder with the permit to operate this route, ASL will have to contend with a schedule which will not be exactly competitive, from the moment they abandoned the route last year. Speed-wise, her sister can barely make 19 knots, in ballast. And with a considerable increase in consumption. All things considered, what is the competitive advantage of a 42-year old ferry that can turn it into a profitable operation? Food for thought.

 

- Then we have Seajets getting their hands on the 37-year old, Color Viking. Honestly speaking, what comment could you or I possibly make? In the sense that Seajets seem to be snapping up all available tonnage without any visible grand strategy on how these ships will be used. What they are planning to do with this ship, is anyone's guess. The initial rumour is that she will be used in the western Cyclades, I would not bet all my money on this. They make changes continuously, they have a great sales network all over the Cyclades, who is to say that they won't do something different or even replace one of their existing ferries? Or go for a subsidised route? In this particular instance, what is even more interesting than the purchase that took place, is the purchase that didn't. And that's the purcase of the Color Carrier. Seajets commenced the negotiation with Color Line on the basis of purchasing both ships, however the sale of the Color Carrier fell through. This would have been the first foray of Seajets in the ro-ro market and it is intriguing to mention that allegedly the thinking behind was that the Color Carrier would have been used between Greece and Cyprus. Something to keep in mind here, the intent to buy a ro-ro may not be a one-off.

 

- The fate of the Smyrna di Levante has been well documented over the last few weeks. Suffice it for me to say that the cold, hard facts can never be hidden behind communications fanfare and wishful thinking. Our members have even mentioned that all things considered the loss Levante have suffered after these 2 months of sailings is as high as 3 million dollars, excluding the purchase and rebuilding cost. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter if it was 1 or 3, what matters is that it's a loss making route and Levante could not afford to take any more losses, this is why they summarily stopped the sailings. The question is, what happens from now on. Levante were keen to state that this is a temporary setback and that the ship will be back during the spring. This can happen but I believe if it does, it will be on the back of a handsome subsidy from the Greek government. And with 2023 being an election year, you never know. Stranger things have happened.

 

In the more probable case that there's no subsidy available, I find it hard to believe that the ship will indeed be back in her former route. So the discussion becomes where else could she be used. I think it's clear that she cannot be used for Kefalonia or Zante due to her large number of cabins. I mean they could use her if they had no choice but it would not be optimal by any stretch of the imagination. The other thing to consider is that Levante have never ventured so far out of the Ionian Sea, in a route where their ship has direct competition. And -oh by the way- this ship is consuming distillate fuel, which means that every ton costs upwards of 1,000 dollars. I can imagine the management of Levante scratching their heads about what to do next. Does not look good, one cannot figure out a route where she could be a great fit, especially using distillate fuel. Definitely more to come from Levante.

 

Today's update was consumed talking about 3 ferries. One of them commenced service this year in Greece, in her 45th year of age, next year she will be 46. The other 2 will do so next year at their 38th and 43rd year of age. That makes an average of 42.5 years or so. And it's not so much the average, as is the fact that the rest of Europe in terms of the age, technology and emissions of the respective fleets, is now ages ahead of Greece. Greece never was and never will be Sweden or Finland in terms of having a quality fleet, at the same time I don't think we should be like Indonesia, which is the direction we are headed, unfortunately.

 

Take care,

Nikos, Piraeus.

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