Stena Line to strengthen Freight network on the North Sea between Rotterdam and UK by adding further capacity

Earlier this year Stena Line announced an increase to its freight capacity on the route Rotterdam-Europoort to Harwich (January 2018) by replacing the current two RoRo vessels by two larger ships. Stena Line has now confirmed plans to also increase capacity on the route Rotterdam-Killingholme in January 2018. Stena Line will consequently increase its total capacity from Europoort by approximately 20%.

A decision has been taken to introduce a larger RoRo vessel on the North Sea to replace the current chartered ship, the Caroline Russ, when its contract expires in January 2018. Next year Stena Line will also reposition the RoRo ships between the Europoort routes to further optimise the available capacity. On the route from Rotterdam to Killingholme, which Stena Line started with one vessel in 2014 and which has daily departures since 2016, MV Misida and MV Misana will operate. The new ship will be introduced alongside the Stena Scotia on the route Rotterdam – Harwich in January 2018.

Annika Hult, Trade Director at Stena Line North Sea commented: “I am very pleased to announce that we will now take the next step in the strategic development of our Rotterdam (Europoort) Freight transport hub to the UK. We have seen a strong growth in the transport market to the UK over the past several years and we are currently trading at very high utilisation on both routes. We also see a good development in Freight volumes arriving to Europoort by train. We believe that the combination of rail and RoRo transportation will increase in the future and our vision is that Europoort will develop into a key rail freight connection point to and from the UK. These capacity increases clearly demonstrate our ambitions and we are confident our customers will react positively to our expansion plans.”

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Note: The company is not currently in a position to disclose the name of the new vessel due to consultation with its current crew.

For more information, please visit www.stenalinefreight.com

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Notes to editors:

Stena Line is one of Europe’s largest ferry operators with 35 ferries and 20 routes in northern Europe. Stena Line is an important part of the European logistics network and it is developing new intermodal freight solutions by combining transport by rail, road and sea. With its extensive passenger operations, Stena Line also plays an important role for tourism in Europe. The company is family-owned, was founded in 1962 and its head office in Gothenburg. Stena Line is part of the Stena Sphere, which has around 19 000 employees and a turnover of approximately SEK 51 000 million.

Stena Line North Sea’s social media updates are available at @StenaLineUK and www.facebook.com/StenaLineUKtoHolland

For further press information please contact:

Fiona Brown, Duffy Rafferty Communications

tel: +44 28 9073 0880 / email: info@duffyrafferty.com