News
New route, new vessel
Samskip has announced plans for the launch of a new scheduled sailing route between Iceland and continental Europe, commencing at the beginning of January 2004. The route, which comes in response to an increased demand for capacity, will be served by a 5,000-ton container liner chartered by the company for the purpose. Samskip now operates 14 vessels on scheduled routes and several others for reefer and project cargo.
Operating under the name M/S Skaftafell, the vessel takes to three the number of ships used by Samskip to service scheduled routes between Iceland and the European mainland. Departing from Reykjavík every 14 days, the route will include three new ports of call - Grundartangi (west Iceland), Reyðarfjörður (east Iceland) and Torshavn (Faroe Islands), - before continuing to Immingham (England) and Rotterdam (Holland).
"This year, a major increase in traffic has seen us use chartered vessels at irregular intervals to service demand for capacity on routes between Iceland and mainland Europe," reveals Samskip president (Iceland), Knútur G. Hauksson.
"Given this, we decided that the time had now come to increase our service on these routes. In doing so, we are also improving our services to the east of Iceland, while increasing the number of sailings offered between the country and continental Europe. We hope our customers will welcome the new service," he adds.
At present, Samskip operates two vessels on routes linking Iceland, the UK, Scandinavia, and mainland Europe, the M/S Arnarfell and M/S Helgafell, the schedules of which will remain unchanged.
Launched in 1999, the M/S Skaftafell has a capacity of 364 container units, and comes equipped with two 60-ton cranes capable of operating together to lift loads of up to 120 tons. Over 100 metres long, the vessel weighs just under 5,000 tons and has a top speed of 15.5 knots.
For further information, contact Knútur G. Hauksson, president, Samskip Iceland. Tel: +354 569 8303.
The new route served by M/S Skaftafell is shown in green, with those of the M/S Arnarfell and M/S Helgafell in blue.
