Italian Ferry Company GNV Orders Four LNG-Powered Ships, Eyes Morocco Route

The Italian company announced on Thursday that it had ordered these four ships equipped with propulsion running on liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Chinese company. With a length of 237 meters, a width of 33 meters, and a tonnage of 71,300 tons, these ships will be able to accommodate 2,500 people (crew and passengers included). They will have 500 cabins and 3,500 linear meters of garage space for freight. "Work should begin in 2026 and the delivery of the first ship will take place in early 2028. The others will follow at six-month intervals. In terms of tonnage, these will be the largest ships in the company’s fleet and the largest in the Mediterranean," explains GNV.

The subsidiary of the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) group had concluded a first contract with GSI for the construction of four ferries. The first, the GNV Polaris, 218 meters long and 29.6 meters wide, was delivered at the end of October and put into service in January on the Genoa-Palermo line. This 49,000-ton ship has 433 cabins and can accommodate up to 1,500 passengers. The second, the GNV Orion, is a 52,000-ton ship with a capacity of 1,785 passengers. It was delivered on April 17 and should join the first one on the same line in June. As for the two remaining ones, GNV Virgo and GNV Aurora, they are being completed. They will be delivered by 2026. The first two have conventional propulsion, while the last two are equipped with dual-fuel engines running on LNG.

Founded in 1992, GNV was acquired by MSC in 2011. The shipping company has a fleet of 25 ships and operates 33 maritime lines in 8 countries, to and from Italy (Sardinia, Sicily), Spain (Balearic Islands), France, Albania, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Malta.