World’s Fastest RoPax Ferry Named in China

Sweden’s oldest passenger shipping company Rederi AB Gotland Group named its new roll-on/roll-off passenger vessel M/S Visborg on Saturday, December 9, in Guangzhou City, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province.

The LNG-powered ferry is being built by Guangzhou Shipyard International Company, part of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), and it is 200 meters long and has the capacity to accommodate 1,730 passengers. The vessel will now undergo final touches before being delivered and phased into the fleet in February 2019.

The ferry will be operated by Destination Gotland, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rederi AB Gotland, which runs state-subsidized domestic ferries from Nynäshamn and Oskarshamn to Visby on the island of Gotland.

Visborg is the first of two sister ferries being built for the Swedish ferry company. Both vessels will be powered by Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines running on LNG.

When delivered, they will be the world’s fastest LNG powered Ro-Pax ferries, according to both Wartsila and Rederi AB Gotland.