From the the Baltic to the Red Sea, Rederi AB Gotland has sold GUTE to UME. © Uwe Jakob

Further fleet expansion for UME

FerryRed Sea ro-ro specialist United Marine Egypt is further expanding its fleet following the acquisition of Rederi AB Gotland’s GUTE for an undisclosed sum. The addition of GUTE brings the number of ships in the UME fleet to four.

UME operates the Safaga-Duba and Digna-Jeddah routes in the Red Sea, employing the 2,140-lanemetre POSEIDON EXPRESS, the 1,300-lanemetre DUBA BRIDGE and 1,103-lanemetre ELGOUNA TRADER. The latter vessel, the former CAP CAMARAT of CMA CGM, was acquired in late 2019.

GUTE was built in 1979 and lengthened by 20.3m in 2004, increasing her intake to 895 lanemetres. The 88-passenger capacity freight-oriented ro-pax was recently re-activated for a NATO charter following a long period of layup in Uddevalla, Sweden.

Sources close to Shippax have indicated that UME will add a fifth ship to its tally before next summer.

Nov 27 2020