Chelsea taps Japan’s Fukuoka to build RoRo vessel

Chelsea Logistics and Infrastructure Holdings Corp. has tapped Japan-based Fukuoka Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. to build a roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) passenger vessel.

Under the agreement signed on June 20, Fukuoka Shipbuilding will construct a 123-meter RoRo vessel which will have a capacity of 1,085 passengers, 24 buses, and 11 trucks.

While Dennis Uy-led Chelsea did not provide a detailed costing of the vessel, it said the ship is scheduled to be delivered in June 2021, or two years after it contracted Fukuoka.

“Our thrust of improving the shipping and logistics industry, together with Fukuoka’s more than seven decades of shipbuilding expertise, will allow us to accommodate the growing number of passengers in the Visayas and Mindanao regions while employing a significant number of Filipinos onboard,” Chelsea president and CEO Chryss Alfonsus Damuy said in an emailed statement.

“We are certain that we can count on Fukuoka’s leadership and look forward to joining hands with them as we continuously create long-term value for our stakeholders” he added.

Chelsea Logistics is in the business of shipping transport through wholly-owned subsidiaries Chelsea Shipping Corp. and Trans-Asia Shipping Lines Inc.

Chelsea Shipping primarily ships petroleum products, including general cargo handling, and loading, transporting, discharging, and storing over Philippine waterways.

Meanwhile, Trans-Asia is engaged in passenger and cargo transportation within Philippine territorial waters and the high seas.

Fukuoka Shipbuilding, for its part, is involved in building chemical tankers, oil tankers, cement carriers, LPG carriers, RoRo ships, multi-purpose cargo ships, reefers, bulk carriers, and ferry ships.

In October 2018, Chelsea Logistics expanded its fleet with two new vessels—M/T Chelsea Providence and M/V Salve Regina—with investments estimated at $50 million.

The company closed the first quarter of 2019 with a net income of P139 million, up 21% increase from a year earlier, on revenues of P1.6 billion—up 33%. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News