Malta Motorways of the Sea, the recently set-up subsidiary of Grimaldi Group Naples, will shortly take delivery of a modern 2000 lane metre ro-ro vessel. This purchase represents another step in the group’s ambitious tonnage renewal programme and its commitment to ensure that the services offered from Malta are both modern and efficient.

Malta Motorways of the Sea offers multi-weekly links from Malta to Italian ports, and, through Grimaldi’s extensive EuroMed Network, to all the main ports in the Euro-Mediterranean area.

The new vessel for the Malta service, originally called Massilia, will be renamed Euroferry Malta and will be deployed, together with the Eurostar Salerno, on a new service that starts on 28 January linking Malta with Catania, Salerno and Genoa with three weekly departures from the Maltese port of Valletta.

The Euroferry Malta was built in 1995 by the Italian yard Visentini, the same yard that built another six vessels belonging to the Grimaldi Group Naples: Eurostar Salerno, Eurostar Valencia, Eurocargo Napoli, Eurocargo Salerno, Eurocargo Valencia and Eurocargo Istanbul.

The 175-metre long Euroferry Malta is a sister vessel to the Eurocargo Napoli (ex Norse Mersey). She features nearly 2000 lane metres of cargo capacity, which gives the possibility to accommodate 150 trailers or up to 650 20’ containers and 400 cars. With a 19, 5 knots service speed, this modern ro-ro vessel also has 15 cabins that offers accommodation for 60 drivers. In line with the requirements of some areas of local industry, the vessel is also certified to carry all types of hazardous cargo. Liner certification has also been obtained making Customs formalities much simpler for all goods circulating freely within the European Union.

In response to recent press reports, the Grimaldi Group Naples can confirm that, in addition to a much higher standard of tonnage employed by Malta Motorways of the Sea, compared with the former State-owned Maltese operator Sea Malta, the rates offered are very attractive despite the recent huge increase in bunker prices, being in all cases lower or the same compared to those formerly offered by Sea Malta.

Grimaldi Group Naples, one of the pioneers of the roll on / roll off transport concept, has currently one of the largest and most modern fleets of ro-ro vessels in the world and offers regular maritime services between North Europe, the Mediterranean, West Africa, North and South America.