The two shipping lines will charter space on-board their ro-ros serving traffic between Sweden and Belgium.

The space charter agreements are expected to start on 1 January 2020, following which DFDS and CLdN are going to deploy one freighter on their respective routes between Gothenburg and Zeebrugge (currently DFDS sails on the link in question with three ro-ros, offering five weekly round trips).

"The space charter agreements entail that capacity is shared between route operators while all commercial activities remain entirely under the control of each operator," a press release issued by DFDS specified.

DFDS is expecting to replace the ships currently serving the Gothenburg-Zeebrugge connection with one 6,700 lane metres of capacity ro-ro newbuilding in Q2 2020 (the to-be-replaced vessels will be deployed elsewhere across the company's network).

"We are very pleased to announce our new space charter agreements. The flexibility of the agreements entails that we reduce the environmental footprint while offering a total of ten weekly departures in each direction on our two routes between Sweden and Belgium [the company also runs the Gothenburg-Ghent service] to support trade and the growth of our customers," Peder Gellert Pedersen, Executive Vice President and Head of Ferry Division, DFDS Group, commented.

Photo: Knud E. Hansen