THE NEW Zealand Government, through special-purpose company Ferry Holdings, has selected China’s Guangzhou Shipyard International to build KiwiRail’s two new rail/ro-paxes.
The choice was reported overnight by Sweden’s SHIPPAX publication and confirmed today [14 October] by NZ deputy prime minister and rail minister Winston Peters.
“GSI is the largest modern integrated shipbuilding enterprise in Southern China, founded in 1954 and is listed on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges,” Mr Peters said.
“We want the best deal possible for New Zealand taxpayers and a shipbuilder of the competence, capability and capacity of GSI underscores the high degree of confidence in our no-nonsense ferry replacement programme.
“Ferry Holdings and GSI are still in negotiations, and details will not be disclosed until these negotiations are completed along with the port agreements with CentrePort Limited and Port Marlborough New Zealand Limited.
“As we said in early September, we have secured major components including a fixed price, completion in 2029, and full delivery of our ship specifications for 200-metre-long ferries with road and rail decks, and room for 1,500 passengers each.
“We intend to make an announcement before the end of this year detailing our agreements and how we have saved the taxpayer billions by cancelling project iReX and returning to the no-nonsense solution we started in May 2020,” Mr Peters said.
GSI, part of the China Shipbuilding Group, has extensive experience of building ro-paxes and other ferries for Chinese and international interests.
It is currently completing an order for four luxury ro-paxes for MSC subsidiary Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV) for Mediterranean services, and has a further order from GNV for 2 + 2 LNG dual-fuel, 2,500-pax, 3,500-lanemetre vessels.