Growing with Finland

news a Grimaldi Group Company 1/2018 GROWING WITH FINLAND EXTRA CAPACITY TO MEET GROWING DEMAND AND INCREASED ENERGY EFFICIENCY >> Modern >> Reliable >> Efficient Contents Editorial 2 Four ships 30 metres longer 4 Our new fair concept was a great success 6 Explore the Archipelago 8 The new ‘Our Ports’ series: Naantali–Kapellskär 8 Schedules 11–15 ACCOMPANYING FINLAND’S GROWTH THE NEWLY PUBLISHED FINNLINES ANNUAL REPORT REVEALS A SET news OF STRONG FINANCIAL FIGURES Issue 1/2018 seq. no. 22 AND ANOTHER MILESTONE IN Editor in Chief: Finnlines OUR COMPANY’S RETURN TO Printed by: K-Print PROFITABILITY. Published by: Finnlines Plc Komentosilta 1 FI 00980 Helsinki www.ﬁnnlines.com press@ﬁnnlines.com Printed in March 2018. Circulation: 15,500 copies OUR VESSELS, 18 OF WHICH ARE FINNISH-FLAGGED, CARRY THE MAJORITY OF FINLAND’S UNITISED, WHEELED IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. A POSITIVE RESULT FOR FINNLINES is good news in particular for Finland. Our vessels, 18 of which are Finnish-flagged, carry the majority of Finland’s unitised, wheeled imports and exports. These units contain everything and anything, from vegetables to toys and car parts. If we see volumes grow, trade in Finland and the Baltic region is healthy. Finnlines also employs over 1,600 people. HAVING DONE WELL IN THE LAST FEW YEARS, now is time to invest. To meet demand and even exceed it, we have brought in new capacity and have increased existing capacity via a ship lengthening programme. We recently announced the purchase of the Star class cruise-ferry Europalink from our parent, the Grimaldi Group. She has a capacity of 4,215 lane metres and 554 passengers and will be fitted with exhaust gas scrubbers in mid- March, as is standard for the Finnlines fleet. She will also enjoy a refurbishment, ensuring public areas have a fresh look, before trading on the Malmö–Travemünde route under the Swedish flag. THE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED FINNLINES SHIP LENGTHENING PROGRAMME is proceeding to plan. The second vessel in the series, the MS Finnwave, was lengthened by 30 metres, increasing her capacity by another 1,000 lane metres to 4,192 lane metres before she rejoined the Uusikaupunki/Turku–Travemünde route. By the end of May, a further two vessels, MS Finnsun and MS Finnsky, will be lengthened. We have an option to lengthen two ACCOMPANYING FINLAND’S GROWTH additional units. Another ship, the Nordolink, is to be given a facelift and renamed Finnswan. FLEET ADDITIONS AND LENGTHENING are set to be comple- HOSE WHO HAVE READ these Finnlines News editorials in mented by newbuildings, too. We have signed a letter of intent recent years know the healthy margins we now see are in for the construction of ice-class vessels which will be, we be- Tlarge part the result of a razor-eyed focus on efficiency and lieve, the largest ro-ro ever built for the European market. efforts to maximise asset use. INCREASED CAPACITY, environmental invest- 2017 ANNUAL REPORT sees us enter a new ments, an unending focus on fuel efficiency and phase: we are now growing with the mar- a constant desire to improve service standards ket and for the market. Favourable trading mean we are well positioned to take advantage conditions helped push cargo volumes to of any upswing. This has been a collective ef- 709,000 units, up from 629,000 in 2016. We fort by employees, who together have helped shipped 147,000 cars (not including passen- ensure we maintain the trust of our customers gers’ cars) and carried 619,000 passengers: and partners. again, comfortably up on the previous year. This had a knock-on effect on revenues for the 12 months, which were up by EUR 58 million (some of which is attributable to bunker surcharges). 3 FINNLINES‘ INVESTMENT PROGRAMME IN ACTION FOUR SHIPS sumption per transported cargo unit, and thus improves energy efficiency further and contributes more to reduced emissions. 30 METRES LONGER The Breeze series vessels will have a capacity of 4,192 lane metres. The 30-metre long centre section increases the vessel ca- FINNLINES IS HALFWAY IN ITS SHIP LENGTHENING PRO- pacity by around 1,000 lane metres. GRAMME, THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND EMISSION REDUC- IN RESPONSE TO GROWING VOLUMES TION INVESTMENT PROGRAMME, WHICH IT LAUNCHED IN Finnlines responds to growing demand by 2017. AS PART OF THE PROGRAMME, FOUR OF ITS BREEZE increasing cargo and passenger capacity. In addition to the ship lengthening programme, SERIES VESSELS WILL BE LENGTHENED, WITH AN OPTION OF Finnlines has purchased MS Europalink from the Grimaldi Group in January 2018. The Star TWO ADDITIONAL VESSELS. class ro-pax vessel will be fitted with exhaust gas scrubbers in mid-March and her public areas will be refurbished. MS Europalink will start to operate on the Malmö–Travemünde S Finntide is the first vessel, which By the end of May, two more vessels, MS route. was lengthened at Remontowa Finnsun and MS Finnsky, will be lengthened. The new vessel in rotation will also gen- Shiprepair Yard in Gdansk, Poland. erate changes elsewhere – at the end of MThe vessel returned to the normal BETTER ENERGY EFFICIENCY April, MS Finnswan (former Nordlink) from traffic at the end of November 2017. The sec- Each lengthened vessel will have a sig- the Malmö–Travemünde route will be re- ond vessel is MS Finnwave, which returned nificant capacity increase, around 30%. The deployed on Naantali–Långnäs–Kapellskär to the service at the end of January 2018. capacity increase reduces the bunker con- route. The 30-metre long extension section has already been attached to the stern of the vessel and here the bow is being floated to its place to be welded. Photo: Cezary Gierszewski 4 Photo: Cezary Gierszewski S Finntide and MS Finnwave have AFTER THE EXTENSION In all its new 217-metre long grandeur already been operating in their ex- THE SHIP HAS MORE MS Finntide returned from Poland to its Mtended length in the Baltic Sea for a route at the end of November 2017. while. Tom Pippingsköld, CFO of Finnlines, WATERLINE AND ITS says that the results have been as planned BEHAVIOUR IS MORE STABLE IN and as positive as expected. ROUGH SEAS. “This investment programme is in line with our sustainable development. Some years ago, we launched an investment programme of EUR 100 million to fit vessels with exhaust gas scrubbers. Now we continue with this Photo: Marika Nöjd EUR 70-million investment programme aimed at energy efficiency and emission reduction,” Tom Pippingsköld says. “We respond to the growing demand by increasing vessels’ cargo and passenger capacity. This will enable us to serve our customers more efficiently,” he continues. Niclas Seligson, Master of MS Finntide, says that after the extension the ship has more waterline and its behaviour is more stable in rough seas. Cargo safety has also improved as the vessel rolls less in heavy weather. “Harbour manoeuvres are now a bit slower but not significantly. The maximum draught continues to be 7.05 metres,” Niclas Seligson says. In early 2018, Captain Selig- son was appointed as a master for the Star class ro-pax vessel. WE RESPOND TO THE GROWING DEMAND BY INCREASING VESSELS’ CARGO AND PASSENGER CAPACITY. 5 OUR NEW FAIR CONCEPT WAS A GREAT SUCCESS EVERY YEAR IN JANUARY, THE MATKA NORDIC TRAVEL FAIR IN HELSINKI MARKS THE START OF THE FINNISH TOURISM YEAR. THE LARGEST TRAVEL INDUSTRY EVENT IN NORTHERN EUROPE, WITH 950 EXHIBITORS FROM 85 COUNTRIES, ATTRACTED 63,000 VISI- TORS. FINNLINES PARTICIPATED IN THE MATKA TRAVEL FAIR WITH A BRAND-NEW EXHIBITION CONCEPT. wo blue Finnlines containers, with a dation. As part of the Finland 100 programme, ‘new look’ LUX cabin built into one Finnlines challenged anybody to participate of them, and the smell of butter pop- in our project ‘Together across the Baltic’. corns attracted both travel industry Our ambitious goal was to collect through Tprofessionals and private visitors to Finn- physical activity (walking or cycling) as lines’ exhibition stand. Visitors could explore many nautical miles as our ro-pax vessels our ro-pax vessel services with the virtual VR cover on 70 voyages between Helsinki and headsets and discuss with our travel special- Travemünde. In kilometres this means 79,240 ists. km. The project succeeded very well indeed, Our new fair concept enabled customers and the target was even exceeded. to buy Finnlines’ ferry trips at a special dis- The donation ceremony was held at Matka count price. And it turned out to be a great Travel Fair, and Finnlines’ CFO Tom Pip- success – our service desks were kept busy pingsköld was really pleased with the large throughout the fair weekend, with interested number of participants in the project – con- visitors swarming around the stand. sisting of our passengers, customers and employees. Professor Emeritus Toivo T. Salmi NEARLY 4,000 GIVEAWAY BAGS AID TO CHILDREN from the Aamu Foundation thanked Finnlines We look to the future, but a brief flashback warmly for this valuable contribution, which DISTRIBUTED AT THE FAIR ARE GOING to the past year was seen, when we donated will help the Finnish research group take part TO BE FOLLOWED AROUND THE WORLD. EUR 50,000 to Aamu Pediatric Cancer Foun- in a new worldwide research programme 6 concentrating on development of children’s hepatic cancer treatments. You can monitor COMMUNITY the progress of the research programme on INVOLVEMENT Finnlines’ social media channels. Finnlines collaborates and interacts FINNLINES BAGS WERE A HIT OF THE FAIR with different stakeholders and Finnlines’ giveaway bags turned out to be organisations. During 2017, Finnlines very popular – one could even say a hit, with was an official Finland 100 partner nearly 4,000 distributed at the fair.

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