Tasmanian freight operator expects to take delivery of new vessel in late 2016.
A new freight ship is on order for Tasmanian ferry carrier SeaRoad Holdings.
The $100 million cargo ship is being built at Flensburger shipyard in Germany and is due to be delivered in late 2016.
The 182m vessel will replace SeaRoad’s Mersey ship, which services King Island, and is set to increase SeaRoad’s freight capacity across Bass Strait by up to 50 per cent.
The contract for the new LNG-powered vessel was finalised last month, and SeaRoad chairman Chas Kelly says he is “jumping out of my own skin” to take delivery of it.
“I think it will be good for the industry and it’s definitely needed for Tasmania and I think as we go forward it will prove to be a very good service to Tasmania,” Kelly says.
“It’s been quite a few years in the making since we started planning and we are very comfortable with the abilities and the design of the new vessel.
“We’ve had some very good feedback from our customers. They can see that we are investing for them and I think they are appreciative of that.”
Kelly believes the new vessel will provide certainty within the freight game as it will have greater capacity to carry trailers.
“I don’t think it will change the game at all but it will give everybody certainty in the space year around. It means that regardless of the time of the year there will always be freight capacity available,” he says.
“It will add faster transit times and it will enable us to have longer times at ports.”
Kelly still wants the existing Mersey ship to continue servicing King Island once the new vessel arrives.
“We will be exploring options with the [Tasmanian] Government at how we can allow that service to continue after the arrival of the new ship because this vessel might be too large to pull up at King Island,” he says.
“It gives us ample time to come up with a solution.
“When I first started running this service I said to the King Island people if they support us we’d support them. I’m not totally happy with the support we have got from King Island but quite a few of them have been very good so we try very hard to solve that issue.”
The timeframe for a second ship to replace SeaRoad’s Tamar vessel will be decided upon completion of the first vessel, Kelly adds.