{"id":125840,"date":"2026-03-17T11:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/900012868"},"modified":"2026-03-17T11:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:25:10","slug":"chinese-shipyard-to-build-freight-vessels-for-northern-isles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/chinese-shipyard-to-build-freight-vessels-for-northern-isles\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese shipyard to build freight vessels for Northern Isles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"An
The new vessels will be faster and provide more capacity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Chinese shipyard has been named as the preferred bidder to build two new “freight flex” vessels serving Orkney and Shetland. <\/p>\n

The ferries will replace ageing boats on the route and carry up to 200 passengers during peak periods. <\/p>\n

Ferries agency Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) said it intended to award the contract to Guangzhou Shipyard International in China. <\/p>\n

Operated by Serco NorthLink Ferries, the 140m long vessels will serve the Aberdeen to Kirkwall and Lerwick route, replacing the Helliar and Hildasay. <\/p>\n

A CMAL spokesperson said the new freight flex vessels would be faster, with more capacity and space for up to 200 passengers in busy periods. <\/p>\n

Three other shipyards were invited to tender for the \u00a3200m contract; two of them based in Turkey and also a joint bid from Stena UK and another Chinese yard. <\/p>\n

CMAL, the Scottish government-owned ferries procurement body, owns a total of 37 ferries, five of them leased to Serco NorthLink Ferries for the Orkney and Shetland routes.<\/p>\n

Kevin Hobbs, chief executive of CMAL said Guangzhou Shipyard International’s bid demonstrated “a commitment to innovation and efficiency”. <\/p>\n

The agency has entered a 10-day “standstill period” before finalising the contract on 24 March.<\/p>\n

Stuart Garrett, managing director at Serco NorthLink Ferries, said the project would be a “game changer” for the Northern Isles.<\/p>\n

Ruth Henderson, chief executive of Seafood Shetland, said the procurement was a relief for the sector, which has struggled at times to export its produce.<\/p>\n

“It gives resilience for the future”, she said.<\/p>\n

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop has welcomed the “important milestone” and said the new vessels would boost the reliability of ferry services in the Northern Isles. <\/p>\n

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The new vessels will be faster and provide more capacity A Chinese shipyard has been named…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}