Irish Ferries HUll 777

[A83]

That may not necessarily be the case. A report on the RTE website today [11th June] titled 'ICG passenger numbers down 60% due to virus' reviews the trading situation for the past 5 months and concludes

"The group is in a strong financial position to weather this Covid-19 storm," the company concluded.

[IFPete]

Hi Niall, They might actually be better off.

Freight Volume has held up well, Thats where the money is. Remember they dont have to pay for Swift Crew or Swift Fuel.

WB Yeats stayed on Dublin - Holyhead with a reduced crewe until Tuesday this week and the costs of running Epsilon to France with freight drivers only would have saved fuel and with less crew than WB Yeats would have required to run the service. They dont even have to employ the Bar man.

If the lockdown continues in France WB Yeats might swap back onto Holyhead.

I guess the real problem is Rosslare - Pembroke, which could have been cancelled if Irish Ferries had adopted a purely commercial approach rather than to support the country in its hour of need.

[ferryfan]

Following the cancellation of the new build an extension to the charter of Epsilon has been agreed until November 2021 with options to extend beyond that. The deposit of ?33 million paid to FSG has been returned to ICG and they have entered into preliminary talks with a number of other shipyards for the construction of ship similar in design to 777.

[Steven]

Following the cancellation of the new build an extension to the charter of Epsilon has been agreed until November 2021 with options to extend beyond that. The deposit of ?33 million paid to FSG has been returned to ICG and they have entered into preliminary talks with a number of other shipyards for the construction of ship similar in design to 777.

It was a while ago (months) so cant remember the source but Eamonn Rothwell himself is quoted as saying any new build order is 2 years off.  They are essentially starting from scratch (FSG wasn't just the builder of 777 but also designer).

To be honest, all shipping operators could be doing with all the liquidity they can get at present rather than having money tied up in new tonnage.