The new ship “MyStar” of the Estonian ferry company “Tallink Grupp” will start sailing on the Tallinn-Helsinki route in September, which is half a year later than originally planned, referring to the newspaper “Turku Sanomat”, reports the Finnish public broadcaster YLE.
The information at the disposal of the newspaper shows that the Rauma shipyard in Finland should have handed over “MyStar” to the customer at the beginning of the year, however, the construction will take at least half a year.
“Tallink” press secretary Katri Linka explained that the ship’s construction work was delayed because the work of the shipyard was disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic, both due to illness of employees and disruptions in supply chains. She emphasized that “Tallink” does not see any problems and the construction of the ship is 97% complete.
The construction of “MyStar” in Rauma was started in April 2020. The cost of the ship is estimated at 250 million euros.
The 212-meter-long and 31-meter-wide ship will be able to transport up to 2,800 passengers and 750 cars.
Although it was originally planned that the ship would use liquefied natural gas, its price has quadrupled in the last two years, so the ship will use diesel fuel.
Linka stated that because of the high price of liquefied natural gas, “Tallink” has not been using it since March and is waiting for a liquefied natural gas terminal to be established in the Port of Paldiski, which could reduce prices on the market.
In the second quarter, the number of Tallink passengers was 262.9% higher than in April-June last year, reaching 1,552,174 passengers. In the second period, the amount of transported cargo increased by 18.9% in annual terms – up to 109,380 cargo units. In April-June, “Tallink” transported 225,563 passenger cars, which is 79.4% more than a year ago.
“Tallink Grupp” operates ferries in the Baltic Sea using the “Tallink” and “Silja Line” brands.
The company’s shares are listed on the official list of the Tallinn Stock Exchange. The largest shareholder is the Estonian investment company “Infortar”, which owns 40% of the shares of “Tallink Grupp”.
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