The Scottish shipping company Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) is pressing ahead with a series of new ferries and has now found a shipyard in Poland, Remontowa, which is considered the preferred bidder.
The project involves seven new Loch-class electric ferries. CMAL has now confirmed that it intends to award the contract to Remontowa Shipbuilding in Gdansk after a ten-day standstill period.
As part of the “Small Vessel Replacement Program”, seven all-electric vessels will be built in the first phase. Three more will be delivered in the second phase of the project, which is to be awarded in a separate tender process later this year. Together with six large new ships that will join the fleet in 2025 and 2026, a third of the entire fleet will then have been renewed.
The electric ferries will help to support island communities and improve the resilience of the ferry network on the Clyde and Hebrides. The first vessel is due to be delivered in 2027. Following an initial search for qualified and experienced shipyards, six shipbuilders were invited to bid for the contract. Five responded to the invitation. It was not disclosed which competitors Remontowa beat out.
Price-performance ratio speaks in Remontowa’s favor
The bids were evaluated on the basis of technical and financial criteria with a weighting of 65% and 35% respectively. “When the results of all criteria were combined, Remontowa’s bid received the highest score and was determined to be the winner,” the statement reads.
Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop, welcomed “the achievement of this milestone in the award of the contract for the construction and delivery of seven new small vessels for our ferry network.” The newbuilds will help improve connectivity and resilience for islanders, businesses and communities, and their electric operation will help reduce carbon emissions from Scotland’s ferry fleet and make ferry services more sustainable.
Kevin Hobbs, Chief Executive of CMAL, said: “It is our responsibility to follow Scotland’s public procurement strategy and commission a shipyard that is capable of building high quality vessels that meet the needs of islanders while providing the best value for money for the public purse. We have confidence in Remontowa‘s capabilities and have worked with them before, most recently on the delivery of the ‘Finlaggan in 2011’. They now want to have a 10-day standstill period before the contract is finalized.
