Viking Line, a Finnish shipping company that operates a fleet of ferries and cruise ships, has signed a letter of intent with the Chinese company Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co. Ltd. concerning an order for a liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered passenger ferry to be delivered in spring 2020.
According to Viking Line, the companies aim to sign a final agreement during spring 2017, for a total investment of approximately EUR 190 million.
The company says the vessel is intended to be a collaborative project, and the plan is to engage a number of Finnish and other European suppliers, including Deltamarin. The new vessel is planned to serve the Turku (Finland)-Åland Islands (Finland)-Stockholm (Sweden) route.
As reported, the vessel will be 218 meters in length, have a gross registered weight of 63,000 tons, and feature a passenger capacity of 2,800 people. Viking Line plans to hire Scandinavian architects for the interior design.
“Our intention is for the vessel to run on LNG. We have excellent experience with this from the M/S Viking Grace, the first large LNG-powered passenger vessel in the world. Great emphasis has been placed in the planning work on environmentally sound solutions, including new innovative energy-efficient applications,” says Jan Hanses, Viking Line’s CEO.
The letter of intent also includes an option for an additional vessel.
