The void left by Moby’s withdrawal from the ro-pax maritime line between the ports of Naples and Palermo will be immediately filled by Gnv, a ferry company of the Msc Group which has just chartered the ro-pax ship Golden Carrier flying the Cypriot flag.
Having just called at the port of the Sicilian capital, the ferry owned by the company A-Ships Management, according to what was confirmed to SHIPPING ITALY by Gnv itself (“a temporary charter organized to meet fleet needs during the period of scheduled maintenance”), appears to have been taken on a three-month charter (with an option for a further quarter) in order to cover the connection between Sicily and Campania where only Grimaldi Euromed and Gnv remain in competition after Moby’s exit from the scene. The latter, as a result of the plan proposed and accepted by the Antitrust Authority to avoid the risk of sanctioning action for possible abuse of a dominant position on some cabotage routes, finds itself having to decommission and sell some ships which will serve to repay the debt incurred with Msc to allow the ‘blue whale’ to close the pre-packaged arrangement with creditors.
Precisely due to the redundancies resulting from the decommissioning of vessels, the trade union organizations Federmar Cisal, Ugl Mare and Usb have proclaimed a new phase of a national 48-hour strike (from 15:00 on December 9 to 14:59 on December 11, 2025) involving the maritime and administrative staff of the companies Moby and Tirrenia Cin. “The decision stems from the serious corporate situation, with the auction sale of five ships, the decommissioning of the historic Naples-Palermo line and the announcement of approximately 350 redundancies among seafarers, with no certain data on administrative staff,” reads a note.
The Golden Carrier ferry, having been chartered ‘short-term’ and manned (therefore with community staff on board), will not be able to contribute, at least in the near future, to alleviating this situation.
N.C.
