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

London, 28 September 2017 – Earlier this year Stena Line announced the increase to their freight capacity on the route Rotterdam (Europoort) to Harwich January 2018 by replacing the current two RoRo vessels by two larger ships. Stena Line now announces their plans to also increase capacity on the route Rotterdam-Killingholme in January 2018. Stena Line will consequently increase their total capacity from Europoort with some 20%.

A decision has now been taken to introduce a larger RoRo vessel on the North Sea to replace a current chartered ship, the Caroline Russ, when its contract expires in January 2018. Stena Line will furthermore as of next year reposition the RoRo ships between the Europoort routes to further optimize 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 next to the Stena Scotia on the route Rotterdam – Harwich in January 2018.

Annika Hult, Trade Director at Stena Line North Sea says: “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 utilization on both routes. We further see a good development in freight volumes arriving to Europoort by train. We believe that the combination of rail and RoRo transportation will only 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” Annika Hult continues.

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

For further information please contact Jesper Waltersson, Press & Media Relations Manager Stena Line, +46 704 85 85 32.

Stena Line is one of Europe's leading ferry companies with 37 vessels and 20 routes in Northern Europe. Stena Line is an important part of the European logistics network and develops new intermodal freight solutions by combining transport by rail, road and sea. Stena Line also plays an important role for tourism in Europe with its extensive passenger operations. The company is family-owned, was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Gothenburg. Stena Line is part of the Stena AB Group, which has about 15 000 employees and an annual turnover of around 36,5 billion SEK.