The Grimaldi Group has commissioned the construction of nine ropax vessels from China Merchants Jinling Shipyard (Weihai), a China Merchants Group company. The deal is worth a total of $1.3 billion.
Four of the new vessels will sail under the Italian flag and be operated under the Grimaldi Lines brand, while two, under the Greek flag, will be deployed by the Greek subsidiary Minoan Lines. These six sister ships belong to the “Next Generation Med” class and will serve routes in the Mediterranean. The six “Next Generation Med” ships will be the first in the Mediterranean designed to run on methanol.
The other three will be delivered to Finnlines, sail under the Finnish flag and inaugurate the “Hansa Superstar” class – constituting the evolution of the already state-of-the-art “Superstar” series – intended for routes in the Baltic Sea.
All nine ships will be delivered between 2028 and 2030 and will feature optimized hull and propeller designs, energy-efficient onboard power management systems (both at sea and in port), shore power readiness and the application of silicon-based hull coatings will reduce CO₂ emissions per transported cargo unit by more than 50% compared to vessels currently operating on the same routes.
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