Finland’s Eckero Shipping has cut its ro-ro fleet to one vessel by agreeing to offload two veteran cargo ships.
It is selling the 1,278-lane-metre Croatian-built Exporter (built 1991) and Shipper (built 1992) to Norwest Ship Management of Norway.
Norwest, the owner of seven cargo ships, has signed a charter agreement for the Exporter that will see the vessel begin operating for it in January.
Ownership will then transfer in July.
At the beginning of 2024, Norwest will also take over ownership of the Shipper, Eckero said.
Eckero’s third vessel, the 1,263-lane-metre Transporter (built 1991), has a multi-year contract with Danish ro-ro and ropax giant DFDS.
Eckero Shipping has about 50 employees, most of whom are on board the Finland-flag ships.
The parent Eckero Group retains two ro-paxes and a cruise ferry.
DFDS struck a cooperation deal with the Eckero Line subsidiary in 2020 as it tried to cope with the pandemic.
Freight ferry services were enhanced between Estonia and Finland through the cargo agreement.
This covered the route between Muuga and Tallinn in Estonia and Vuosaari and Helsinki in Finland.
Eckero Line made up to 500 staff redundant that year.
Most of these were crew on two vessels, as well as staff at subsidiary Birka Cruises’ Stockholm office.
A skeleton crew of 13 people were kept on the ships.
