European short-sea ro-ro company, CLdN RoRo, is adding 12 new vessels to its fleet as part of an expansion programme it says will allow it to broaden the range of services on offer while increasing capacity on existing routes.
CLdN, currently operates 24 ro-ro vessels and offers more than 100 sailings per week between the European ports of Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, London, Killingholme, Dublin, Gothenburg, Esbjerg and Porto.
The company did not reveal the investment figure on the vessel build but did reveal that its ports division C.Ro, will invest around €100m ($113m) on expanding its terminals to accommodate the next generation vessels.
CLdN have placed firm orders for two vessels, with a length of 235m, equal to 8000 lane metres, which are double the capacity of the majority of today’s larger short sea ro-ro vessels according ot the company. Furthermore, the company said it was poised to place orders for further vessels of classes ranging between 4700 and 8000 lane metres. The orders will be spread across various yards in Europe and the Far East and the first vessel is expected to go into service in the third quarter of 2017.
The new vessels will combine high utilisation container and trailer decks with additional car decks to serve automotive clients.
CLdN said it currently handles 1m cargo units a year along with 1m new cars and vans. The new vessels will generate an additional 70% capacity over the next four years, allowing current trades to expand and new routes to be developed, according to a statement from the ro-ro provider.
