Four companies enter bids to build Estonia's fifth major islands ferry
On Monday, the State Fleet's international tender for the construction of a fifth ferry for the Väinameri fleet concluded, with four companies submitting bids.
According to the Public Procurement Register, bids were submitted by the Polish shipbuilding company Crist, the Dutch-based Damen, the Norwegian company Havyard, which is owned by Turkish interests, and a small local firm called Nso, owned by Saaremaa entrepreneur Sander Pere, local paper Saarte Hääl reports.
Kristel Kask, communications manager for the State Fleet, said that the tender process for the fifth ferry is still ongoing and more details will be available once all bids have been thoroughly reviewed and a winner has been selected.
"Since this is a complex procurement process, the analysis will take time and the results can be expected in February," Kask explained.
At this stage, it is not known what prices the bidders have offered. The State Fleet had hoped over the summer that the total cost would remain under €40 million. To meet this target, the project was significantly scaled back.
The new ferry is intended to become the primary vessel for the Virtsu-Kuivastu route between the mainland and the islands of Muhu and Saaremaa but will also be capable of operating on the Rohuküla-Heltermaa route between the mainland and Hiiumaa if needed. According to the current schedule, the ferry should be completed by February 2027 and enter service in the spring of the same year.
The fifth ferry project is 65 percent funded by the European Union's energy efficiency and environmental impact reduction support fund. Estonia will cover the remaining 35 percent of the project's costs.
Initially, the government had envisioned a larger, hydrogen-powered vessel for the fifth ferry to serve routes between the mainland and the major islands. However, the procurement tender for the design and construction of a hydrogen ferry, launched earlier, failed to secure a contract by the deadline of April 4, 2024. While hydrogen is considered a promising future alternative fuel in the shipping sector, the tender process showed that shipbuilders are not yet prepared to implement hydrogen systems on passenger ferries at this scale — or are only willing to do so with a significant risk premium.
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Editor: Mirjam Mäekivi, Marcus Turovski
Source: Saarte Hääl
