DFDS Ferry to be lengthened by ۳۰ metres

TIN news:  DFDS has scheduled to lengthen one of its freight vessels by 30 metres during summer, adding more than 800 lane metres’ capacity to the ship. This is equivalent to about 55 trailers. The company says that lengthening its ship, it is a quick way to get additional capacity while at the same time reducing energy consumption per transported lane metre compared to the original ship. The previous lengthening of DFDS vessels has proven to be a very efficient way of adding extra capacity to the fleet.
The ship that will be lengthened is PRIMULA SEAWAYS, which is currently in service with another vessel on a daily freight route connecting Germany and the UK. DFDS has signed a contract with the Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven where the work will commence on 1 July. We expect the ship back in service at the beginning of August.
“This is obviously a much faster process than ordering new and larger vessels, which could easily take two or three years. So, in some cases lengthening is a viable alternative to a new vessel. Another option could have been to purchase or charter another freight vessel on the market, but there are currently no good alternatives that are suited to this,” says Jesper.
The ship will be cut in two
The ship will be cut in two and a 30-metre section will be inserted between the parts, as can be seen in the picture above of FICARIA SEAWAYS going through the same process in 2009. When the three sections are welded together again, she will have added more than 800 lane metres to her capacity, taking it to 4,600 lane metres. This is a 20% increase in capacity.
“The lengthened ship will be delivered at the beginning of August. During the docking period, normal maintenance work will also be carried out along with work to increase the width of the ramp from the main deck to the lower hold,” says Jesper Aagesen. The purpose of widening the ramp is to improve the loading and unloading of the ship and avoid this to become a bottleneck.
 
DFDS has done this before
Lengthening a ship like this doesn’t sound like an obvious solution when you want to expand capacity, but to DFDS it is. “We lengthened three of our flower-class freight ships in 2009: FICARIA SEAWAYS,BEGONIA SEAWAYS and FREESIA SEAWAYS. The longer ships have been very successful. The lengthening has proven to be a very efficient way of adding extra capacity to the fleet, because we continue with the same vessels using the same amount of oil, but still shipping 20% more cargo,” tells Jesper Aagesen.
Jesper and his team have already visited the shipyard in Bremerhaven and could inspect the steel that is already destined to be built into the new sections with which PRIMULA SEAWAYS will be lengthened. The yard team has already started with the construction of the 30-metre section. Once the ship arrives in July, they ‘only’ have to cut the ship in two and add the new section to the ship. We will obviously come back to you once the work starts