STRAIT LINK’s two Bass Strait ro-ros will soon be off to Singapore for five-year special survey and drydocking but there’ll be no interruption to the company’s overnight service between Burnie and Melbourne.
The 25,593 GT Peregrine arrived in Burnie on Friday [2 August] after a six-week journey from Europe, necessarily taking the ‘long way’ around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid Red Sea troubles.
The 2010-built vessel, chartered from Luxembourg-based CldN, is expected to be in Bass Strait service until December as the 28,708 GT Tasmanian Achiever II and Victorian Reliance II are sequentially drydocked at Sembawang in Singapore.
The pair were delivered by China’s Jinling in September and December 2018 and entered the trade in early 2019, replacing earlier sisters Tasmanian Achiever and Victorian Reliance, both now trading for affiliates of MSC. The current ships are expected to return to service newly painted in Strait Link blue livery.
Strait Link boasts they are the only Australian shipping company to specifically charter tonnage to cover drydockings. Rival SeaRoad Shipping recently welcomed back Searoad Mersey II from drydocking, also in Singapore, but operated just with running mate Liekut during the five-week absence.
Strait Link is the former Toll Shipping, which, along with then parent Toll Global Express, was acquired by Sydney-based private equity investors Allegro Funds in 2021 and renamed in September 2022. The now-named Team Global Express and Strait Link are separate entities under the Allegro umbrella.
Meanwhile, in New Zealand Interisland Line’s Kaitaki left Wellington this afternoon (NZ time) for its Singapore drydocking. It is expected to be away from Cook Strait for over two months.
