Page 38: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2004)

Grimaldi Continues Fast Track Expansion

Manuel Grimaldi confided to some close friends last December that not only had he decided to set up a new line from Italy to Spain but also to purchase

Superfast 1 now called Eurostar Roma for about S49.3 million. The specifica- tion of the vessel will mean a greater presence in Mediterranean RoRo and in fact there are now three of this type of vessel under the name of Grimaldi Ferry

Prestige. The new purchase Eurostar

Roma (pictured opposite page) was pre- sented by the Naples shipping group in

Rome on January 23. 2004. The vessel is 24.000 tons. 570.8 ft. (174 m) long, with a beam of 78.7 ft. (24 m) and a cruising speed of 27 knots. Eurostar Rome can carry 1,400 passengers with 100 cars as well as 110 trailers. The ship will carry out a thrice weekly service between

Civitavecchia and Barcelona. Sailing time for Barcelona is 18 hours and nine hours for Golfo Aranci. The name of the new Grimaldi-Naples vessel was chosen because of Civitavecchia's identification as the port of Rome. Grimaldi-Naples

Group, headed by Guido Grimaldi. is a leader in the transport of cars and wheeled vehicles and owns one of the largest multi purpose and car carrier

RoRo fleets in the world with 50 ves- sels. of which 31 are newbuilds. includ- ing five under construction. The Naples group operates shipping lines to over 100 ports in 40 countries in the

Mediterranean, Northern Europe,

Scandinavia, British Isles, West Africa and North and South America. Since 1997 the company has spent approxi- mately $1.3 billion modernizing the fleet, and its number of employees has risen from 1,000 to 3,100.

Three Newbuilds for Grimaldi

The car carrier Grande Lagos, the sev- enth of a 10-vessel order, was launched on February 22 at the Croatian yard

Uljanik at Pola for Italy's Grimaldi-

Naples. Grande Lagos, which will be delivered in May, is a 44,500 ton 650-ft. (198.4-m) long ship with capacity for 5,400 cars or 456 trucks and 200 cars on 45.671 sq. m., and has a cruising speed of 20 knots. The other three vessels will be delivered at Uljanik for Grimaldi-

Naples during the period from 2004 and 2006. On February 16, Grimaldi-Naples took delivery of Grande Buenos Aires at

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