Sandy-Lanes

Tasmania’s SeaRoad Shipping has sold the former Bass Strait ro-ro SEAROAD MERSEY (built 1991) to a Marshall Islands-registered company for operation by Mexico’s Baja Ferries.

TOLL Shipping, the operator of two ships between Burnie and Melbourne, has signed a contract to build two new ships. International shipping publication Shippax has reported that Toll Shipping signed with Chinese shipyard Jinling after choosing it from 19 yards worldwide. Toll operates the Tasmanian Achiever and Victorian Reliance across Bass Strait, carrying about 120,000 containers a year, In 2014, Toll announced it hoped to have two new ships on the Bass Strait run by mid-2019.Toll is yet to confirm the latest Shippax reports which say the Chinese shipyard was chosen to build the two 210m-vessels because of the scheduled delivery, the yard’s reputation, reasonable pricing and quality. The 12,000-ton ships would carry 700 containers and 60 small cars and have features to improve environmental performance and fuel consumption. Infrastructure Minister Rene Hidding said the Government would welcome any investment in freight capacity across Bass Strait. “Tasmania currently has the fastest growing export sector in the country and more investment would make sure exporters can continue to grow, employ more people and expand markets,” he said. The Toll news comes as its Bass Strait competitor Searoad Holdings looks forward to sea trials of its $100 million liquid natural gas powered ship being built in Germany. The 182m-ship to replace the SEAROAD MERSEY was launched in June and should be in Tasmania in December. It will carry 400 containers from Devonport to Melbourne compared with the 260 container capacity on the Searoad Mersey. Searoad originally announced that it would build two ships simultaneously but has since said it would wait and see how the first ship went before ordering a replacement for the Searoad Tamar.The Bass Strait investments coincide with the Federal Government’s extension to the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme to cover exports bound for international markets. The TT-Line is expected to introduce two new ships in the 2020s.