P&O Ferries Extend Charter of Freight Ro Ro’s on North Sea Which Includes Ship Also Serving Finnlines Belgium-Ireland Route

11th July 2023

P&O Ferries extend charters of three ro-ro freight vessels operating North Sea routes linking the UK and Belgium. A pair of chartered Bore ro-ro's will be extended by three years on the Zeebrugge-Tilbury and Zeebrugge-Teesport routes. In a separate agreement, P&O with Finnlines is to extend the charter of MS Finnpulp between Teesport-Zeebrugge from where the vessel will continue maintaining the route to Rosslare Europort (as above with the ro-ro). As AFLOAT reported in March, in a partnership to boost trade between the three countries, P&O Ferries provide stevedoring and ship handling services for the Finnlines Belgium-Ireland route also operated by larger fleetmate, MS Finnwave. Credit: Jehan Ashmore

Operator P&O Ferries has confirmed its long term commitment to its North Sea routes by extending the charter agreement with Bore Ltd of two ro-ro freight vessels, boosting the flow of trade between Belgium and the UK.

According to MultiModal, the extended charters of MS Norsky and MS Norstream, twins each with a 125 trailer unit capacity, will maintain the operators presence on the Zeebrugge-Teesport and Zeebrugge-Tilbury routes for the long term.

The three-year extension to the charter agreement ensures that freight customers will be able to rely on regular P&O Ferries’ services to key routes across the North Sea. The MS Norsky and MS Norstream both built in 1999, will play a vital role in linking customers to P&O Ferries’ Zeebrugge hub, unlocking access to freight destinations across Europe.

As well as extending charter agreements on the MS Norsky and MS Norstream, P&O Ferries has reinforced its commitment to the Zeebrugge-Teesport route through a separate extension of the MS Finnpulp charter agreement with the Grimaldi-owned Finnlines.

The MS Finnpulp (190 trailers) will continue serving the route on two midweek sailings a week, giving customers more options on the key trading routes between the UK and Belgium. (Afloat adds, the same freight vessel also operates a Belgium-Ireland service of a single weekly return on Finnlines’ Zeebrugge-Rosslare Europort route, see related joint partnership story).

The extension of these key charter agreements ensures the continuation of P&O Ferries’ 30-year presence at Teesport where the company manages a specialised terminal and berth, providing an exceptional service to our customers at the port.

Peter Hebblethwaite, Chief Executive of P&O Ferries, said:“Our continued cooperation with Bore Ltd and Finnlines is in response to the importance of our North Sea routes to our customers, who are playing a key role in ensuring smooth trade between Europe and the UK.

“We’re delighted to be reinforcing our presence on our North Sea routes and ensuring our customers continue to receive great service and consistent sailings between Zeebrugge and our UK ports in the years ahead.”

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Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals.

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Irish Sea Ferry Routes

Irrespective of the type of vessel deployed on Irish Sea routes (between 2-9 hours), it is the ferry companies that keep the wheels of industry moving as freight vehicles literally (roll-on and roll-off) ships coupled with motoring tourists and the humble 'foot' passenger transported 363 days a year.

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A prime example of the necessity for trade in which we consumers often expect daily, though arguably question how it reached our shores, is the delivery of just in time perishable products to fill our supermarket shelves.

A visual manifestation of this is the arrival every morning and evening into our main ports, where a combination of ferries, ro-pax vessels and fast-craft all descend at the same time. In essence this a marine version to our road-based rush hour traffic going in and out along the commuter belts.

Across the Celtic Sea, the ferry scene coverage is also about those overnight direct ferry routes from Ireland connecting the north-western French ports in Brittany and Normandy.

Due to the seasonality of these routes to Europe, the ferry scene may be in the majority running between February to November, however by no means does this lessen operator competition.

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