News

Press release 20 June 2024

Today marked a significant milestone with the first groundbreaking at Molin in Tórshavn, where Smyril Line and Tórshavn Municipality, together with the Port of Tórshavn, will build a new port terminal and headquarters for P/F Smyril Line.

This joint project, set to be a state-of-the-art facility at Molin in Tórshavn, will be 8054 square meters in size and includes a passenger terminal with a gangway and check in, expanded warehouse, and office spaces for Smyril Line as well as facilities for customs.

Articon, Henning Larsen Architects, LBF Consulting Engineers, PBC, and Verk.fo are jointly responsible for the project, which is expected to be completed in the summer of 2026.

Press release 13 May 2024

Smyril Line and Articon have made an agreement to build a terminal. The new terminal will also include a warehouse and offices. The building will be situated on the harbor in Tórshavn.

Smyril Line needs larger storage and office facilities, and Tórshavnar Havn (Port of Tórshavn) requires a better and larger terminal than the old one. Therefore, a collaboration agreement has been made.

With this project, Smyril Line and Tórshavnar Havn aim to secure their future operations and provide better services.

The new terminal, including storage and office spaces, will cover a total area of 7,389 square metres. The project also includes a customs building, a gangway, and check-in areas, bringing the total area to 8,054 square metres.

The work is expected to be completed in the summer of 2026.

The advisors on the project are: Henning Larsen Architects, LBF Consulting Engineers, PBC, and Verk.fo.

Press release 26 March 2024

For many years, Norröna has sailed from the Faroe Islands on Thursday evening and from Hirtshals on Saturday afternoon, but in November 2024, the sailing schedule will change.

From 8 November 2024, the winter sailing schedule will be as follows:

• Departure from Tórshavn on Friday evening at 20:00.
• Arrival in Hirtshals on Sunday at 11:00, followed by departure from Hirtshals at 15:00.
• Arrival back in Tórshavn on Tuesday morning at 7:30.

From the end of November to mid-March, there is no sailing to Iceland, but when Norröna resumes its sailings to Iceland in March, the departure from Tórshavn to Iceland will be on Tuesday, and from Seyðisfjörður to the Faroe Islands on Thursday evening.

In June, the summer sailing schedule will commence, remaining the same as in previous years. Norröna will continue to sail twice a week between Denmark and the Faroe Islands and once a week to Iceland during the summer period.

Press release 21 March 2024

Smyril Line had its annual general meeting at Hotel Hafnia today. At the meeting, the annual report for 2023 was presented. EBITDA for 2023 was 267 million DKK, compared with 201 million DKK in 2022. The profit after tax was 122 million DKK, compared with 77 million DKK in 2022. This is therefore a record year for the company. Smyril Line is paying a 10 million DKK dividend for 2023.

The number of employees at the Smyril Line group was 595 in 2023. This was about the same as the previous year. The cargo operations were generally successful, and on the passenger side, there was a reasonable increase in demand for Iceland, while the demand for the Faroe Islands decreased slightly in 2023 compared to 2022.

The largest investment by Smyril Line in 2023 was the cargo ship Glyvursnes, which joined the company in December. Glyvursnes sails the route between Tórshavn, Þórlakshöfn, and Hirtshals. With the purchase of Glyvursnes, Smyril Line can service the entire route network with its own fleet.

The outlook for 2024 is reasonably good. We expect steady development both within travel and cargo operations. This assessment is based on the current trend and outlook, but factors such as rising fuel prices, duties, interest rate hikes, inflation, and the political situation can change the conditions.

It is of great importance that Smyril Line continuously renews and future-proofs its fleet. We are pleased that in January this year, we made a contract to build two new cargo ships, which will join the fleet in 2026. Thus, the renewal of the fleet has begun. This means that we can also in the future provide our customers with good service and lead the company towards a greener energy solution.

Board: The board consists of Tummas Justinussen, Arne Joensen, Helga á Borg, and Jens Meinhard Rasmussen.

If you have questions, you are welcome to contact Jens Meinhard Rasmussen, CEO, on tel. no. 794910.

Press release 7 February 2024

Smyril Line is pleased to announce that a contract has been made with the CIMC Raffles shipyard in China to build two new cargo ships for the company. These are two identical RoRo ships, measuring 190 meters in length and having 3,300 lane meters for trailers. The new cargo ships will join Smyril Line's current network, and they are planned to start sailing in 2026. The ships are designed for optimal year-round seaworthiness in the North Atlantic with great emphasize on our crew comforts and wellbeing on board.

The ships are being designed in close cooperation with Knud E. Hansen, naval architects, who, together with the extensive experience of Smyril Line in the North Atlantic, will ensure that the ships are built for the special route between Europe, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. The ships will be modern and environmentally friendly, meeting all international emission standards. Compared to the company's existing fleet, they will emit significantly less per transported ton. At the same time, the ships will be equipped with a battery system and the possibility for shore power, which means that port operations can be conducted without emissions. The ships will also be prepared to sail on e-methanol, which is considered to be the best future choice for green energy at Smyril Line.

"Now is the time to set ourselves new and bigger goals towards reducing emissions in the North Atlantic," says Jens Meinhard Rasmussen, CEO of Smyril Line. "The company's main goal is to ensure safe and reliable transportation of both passengers and cargo, and to connect the periphery of the North Atlantic with the rest of the world. With the new ships, we emphasize futureproofing and leading the company towards a greener energy solution and lead the way for Smyril Line towards the goals for decarbonization in our fleet renewal, supporting the green transition of the shipping industry.

We will also transport much larger quantities of cargo with less energy consumption than we do now. The energy saving will be at least 60%. This is an important step for us to achieve our goals towards net-zero emissions by 2050, while we can offer our customers an even better service. We have been operating routes in the North Atlantic since 1982. This is not just one of the world's longest ro-ro and ro-pax routes, but probably also the one with the most challenging sailing conditions. We know from experience that sailing on our route places great demands on both ship and crew, and we have therefore designed the ships with this in mind."

Kind regards

Jens Meinhard Rasmussen, CEO Contact: +298 794910, jmr@smyrilline.fo

Tórshavn, 11th of September 2023

Smyril Line has purchased the RoRo cargo ship “Seagard” from Finnish shipping company Bore Ltd. 

The vessel will be delivered to Smyril Line 1. week of January 2024 and will be renamed Glyvursnes.

Glyvursnes was built at Sietas shipyard Germany in 1999. It is 153,5 metres long and 20,6 metres wide.            

Glyvurnes will replace time chartered vessel “Mistral” and will go into regular service between Tórshavn Faroe Islands, Þórlakshöfn in Iceland and Hirtshals in Denmark

When Glyvursnes enters service, Smyril Line will own all 6 vessels in its fleet.

For further inquiries, please contact:

Jens Meinhard Rasmussen, CEO 
Tel + 298 794910 

19.10.2022

Smyril Line’s green targets entail reducing energy consumption and ensuring the most sustainable organisation of its transport operations. This is a continuous effort carried out in several phases. Several adjustments have already been made. These include cutting vessel energy consumption by sailing a slower speeds and spending less time quayside.  

The next key step is amending Norröna’s winter schedule. This means that Norröna will no longer sail to Iceland at the height of winter. The ferry’s first departure to Iceland in 2023 will therefore be on March 18th from Hirtshals and March 20th from Tórshavn. Norröna’s last departure from Iceland in 2023 will be on November 22nd.  

Smyril Line continually strives to make its maritime passenger and freight transport more sustainable. This, however, does not mean that any further changes to Norröna’s 2023 sailing schedule are to be expected.

10th March 2022 
 
Today, The Smyril Line Group held its annual general meeting. The result for 2021 showed a surplus of 16 million DKK. 

Total sales at Smyril Line increased from 849 million DKK in 2020 to 1.191 million DKK in 2021, and the operating result was 119 million DKK compared to 76 million DKK in 2020. The total amount of personnel in Smyril Line was 549 in 2021, about 100 employees more than in 2020. 

Freight activities have generally exceeded our expectations; however, activities in Norway had a negative impact on the profits for the year. 

The route between Rotterdam and Hitra was discontinued in November 2021 while a new route was added between Rotterdam, Thorslakshøfn and Tórshavn. 

As in the previous year, passenger sales in 2021 were severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The total number of passengers was 40% lower than before the pandemic.  

Norröna went through a major refurbishment during the winter 2020/2021 and re-entered service in March 2021. 50 cabins were added to the ferry, out of which 32 are delux cabins.  The upgrade has increased the ferry's standard as well as the demand for travel.  

Work has begun on a new harbour project which will include a new ferry terminal, warehouse, and an office building in Tórshavn. This project will allow Smyril Line to provide better services and, at the same time, increase activities.  

Sales' prospects for 2022, concerning both freight and tourism, are looking reasonably good.  After two years of low passenger numbers, the demand has increased again, and the increasing demand for travel is seen in the hotels.  

On the other hand, conflicts in Europe, increased oil prices and third-party fees have a negative effect on Smyril Line's operations.  

Smyril Line will not allocate dividend for 2021.   

2nd of November 2021

Our freight vessel M/V Akranes will be servicing a new route between Thorlakshøfn, in Iceland´s West coast, Tórshavn and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. 

Akranes will depart from Iceland Wednesday evenings and the Faroe Islands Thursday evenings and sail direct to Rotterdam. It will dock in Rotterdam Saturday afternoons and depart again on Saturday evenings bound directly for Iceland, which she will call Wednesday mornings. 

Akranes´ new route gives Icelandic and Faroese exporters new export options with departures Wednesday evenings from Iceland and Thursday evenings from Tórshavn direct to Europe. This connection also adds a wealth of opportunities to access markets near and far. 

The direct link creates exciting prospects for Icelandic importers, who can now receive mid-week deliveries from Europe in the Reykjavík area. 

Akranes’ first planned departure from Rotterdam is on 20th November 2021. 

M/V Akranes was built in 1998 at the UMOE Sterkoder in Norway. The ship is 138 m long and 23 m wide. Smyril Line purchased the vessel in December 2019.

7th May 2021

The Smyril Line Group has held its annual general meeting. The results for 2020 showed a surplus of 7,8 million DKK. This is considerably lower than previous estimates. The lower surplus is a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bearing this in mind, the Board of Directors and Group Management are satisfied with the overall result. Smyril Line will not allocate dividend for 2020.

2020 was a difficult year for the tourist industry. Smyril Line was also affected by this. The downturn has been significant. Fewer tickets were sold for passenger transport with Norröna, and there were fewer stays at Hotel Brandan and Hotel Hafnia than anticipated. In total, Smyril Line’s turnover for tourist activities decreased by approximately 170 million DKK.

Norröna went through a major refurbishment during the winter 2020/2021. 50 additional cabins were added, and the old cabins were updated. A new café was built on the top deck. Other repairs and changes were also made. For example, a new lounge with sofas and chairs was added.

Norröna was added to the fleet in 2003. Back then, people’s expectations were not the same as today. As such, the shipping company deems it necessary to keep up with the times and fulfil the demands of passengers travelling with Norröna.

Smyril Line believes that opportunities are good in the Faroese tourist industry, but the current situation with the COVID-19 restrictions makes the work difficult. Nobody knows exactly what to expect within this particular industry. 

Smyril Line’s cargo transport activities have not been impacted by the pandemic and went according to plan in 2020. In addition to Norröna, Smyril Line has five freight vessels in its fleet: Eystnes, Hvítanes, Akranes, Mykines and Mistral. Smyril Line has been renting Mistral.

Cargo transport activities increased in 2020. The route between the Netherlands and Norway, served by the freight vessel Akranes, was added to Smyril Line’s route network. Akranes sails weekly between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Tananger, Bergen, Trondheim, Rørvik and Hitra in Norway.

The total number of personnel working for the company is approximately 500. The majority are Faroese.

The prospects for Smyril Line are good. Cargo transport activities are expected to remain steady, and the outlook for an increase in tourist activities is positive. The demand for the Faroe Islands and Iceland as holiday destinations is increasing. As such, the Group has taken the necessary steps to accommodate an increase in demands within the tourist industry by expanding the total capacity of Norröna and the hotels.

28th September 2020

On Saturday the 19th December Norröna will dock at the Fayard Ship Repair Yard in Munkebo, where she will stay there until 4th March 2021. Two days later on 6th March, Norröna will plough out of Hirtshals again headed for the Faroe Islands.

The new Norröna first arrived in April 2003. Since joining the Faroese fleet, Norröna has undergone rolling refurbishments. However, the time has come for major renewals to future-proof Norröna, the only passenger ship with a regular route in the North Atlantic.

‘We need more cabins and much improved outdoor facilities,’ says Rúni Vang Poulsen, CEO of Smyril Line. ‘So we will be expanding with about 50 cabins,’ the CEO adds. The new cabins will be double rooms.

The ship decks will also be revamped with a new outdoor café-bar and facilities to take in the Atlantic Ocean. A raft of other upgrades will also be revealed in spring, including a brand new lounge area with sofas and easy chairs for passengers to relax and simply enjoy the crossing. 

‘Times have changed since Norröna joined the fleet seventeen years ago. And our customer’s expectations have changed with them. It is crucial that we stay on trend and meet our passengers’ demands,’ Rúni Vang Poulsen says.