Tallink and Meyer Turku sign LOI for LNG fueled ferry

DECEMBER 12, 2014 — Tallinn, Estonia, headquartered AS Tallink Grupp and Meyer Turku Oy have signed a Letter of Intent for the construction of an environmentally friendly, LNG-fueled, car-passenger ferry for the Tallinn-Helsinki route shuttle operations. The ship will cost around 230 million euros and will be built at Turku shipyard for delivery in the beginning of 2017. The project will provide approximately 2,000 man-years employment for the shipyard.

The new ferry will be about 212 m in length with a gross tonnage of 49,000.

The ship will operate on the route between Helsinki and Tallinn and is planned to carry 2,800 passengers.

In a joint statement, the ferry operator and the shipbuilder say the ship will bring significant improvement in energy efficiency, achieved by applying numerous innovations and new technical solutions.

“Green values, reduction of all emissions, minimizing the amount of waste and increasing recycling utilization, have been very carefully taken into account in the design of the ferry,” they say. “The ship uses LNG as fuel and she complies with the new and stricter emission regulations for the ECA areas including the Baltic Sea.”

Management Board Member of AS Tallink Grupp, Janek Stalmeister said that with the new ferry Tallink aims for an upgrade of the Tallinn-Helsinki route ferry service.

“As the market leader and a long time operator on the route we have a good understanding of customer expectations and know what needs improvement,” he said. “I am confident that the world-class experience of Meyer Turku will be once again a valuable asset for us to deliver a high quality new ferry, which will strengthen our competitive advantages.

The Turku shipyard delivered a series of six ferries to Tallink between years 2002-2009.

“I’m very happy that Meyer Turku will continue the excellent and trusting cooperation with Tallink,” said Jan Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku Oy. “This new ferry prototype gives us an excellent opportunity to apply improved design & building methods. For all these reasons this Letter of Intent signed today is very important to Meyer Turku and to the entire Finnish shipbuilding cluster.”

Tallink Grupp and Meyer Turku say they will work on the shipbuilding contract and financing arrangements over the next few month,