Marfret and Xavier Macaire – a long-term partnership.

Having already sponsored the yachtsman in 2020 on the Solitaire du Figaro, Marfret has decided to renew its partnership with Xavier Macaire in 2022.

The collaboration takes on even more significance this year since, after winning the Drheam Cup last July, Xavier will be taking part in the Route du Rhum, which leaves Saint Malo on 6th November for Guadeloupe, an island we have been serving for more than 40 years. Who knows if he might even pass a Marfret ship in the middle of the Atlantic? One thing is for certain: it will be aboard one of them, the Marfret Niolon, that Xavier Macaire’s Class40 yacht will be travelling back to France after the race.

Beyond the financial and logistical support, the partnership is a moment of fruitful exchanges between the Marfret teams and Xavier Macaire and his crew. This was certainly the case on 7th September last, when our staff were treated to a day sailing with Xavier Macaire on his Class40, one that left them impressed with the yacht’s outstanding performance!

Marfret boosts presence in Belgium

The partnership with Neptumar will consolidate the shipping company’s position in Belgium.

Marfret has been serving Belgium for more than 30 years, both with its trans-Atlantic container services and, more recently, its roro MPV line, which calls at the port of Antwerp.

To consolidate its presence in Belgium, Marfret is reinforcing its partnership with Neptumar, part of the Menzell & Döhle Group, who will be responsible for managing operations and sales for all its port calls in Belgium. “With this extended cooperation with Neptumar, and the Menzell & Döhle group who are also our agent in Germany, we are joining a network to conquer new territory. We will be setting up our sales and operations teams within the Antwerp agency tasked with both supervising port calls and freight forwarding,” says an enthusiastic Guillaume Vidil, Marfret’s managing director, who plans to be in Antwerp at the beginning of October and will attend the AntwerpXL event, taking place from 4-6 October, with the MPV service teams.

Marfret’s latest service, the MPV, now calling at Antwerp

Launched at the height of the health crisis, the MPV service is a direct, multipurpose and regular service providing an easy way to ship consignments such as yachts, buses and aircraft wings without transhipment. The destinations served from Le Havre and Antwerp are Pointe-à-Pitre, Fort-de-France and Dégrad-des-Cannes, with a transit time of 42 days. For the past year, Marfret has been able to appreciate the reactiveness, flexibility, reliability and efficiency of the Antwerp’s comprehensive range of logistics services. “We need reliable partners, whether it’s for handling, fuelling or maintenance,”  acknowledges Guillaume Vidil. The combination of good labour relations at Antwerp, the richness of its hinterland and the reactiveness of the port’s stakeholders provide the perfect conditions for developing Marfret’s services in Belgium.

Marfret Guyane out of dry dock

The Marfret Guyane is looking spic and span again after its refit in a Shanghai dry dock over the summer. Marfret took advantage of the refit to carry out work to reduce the ship’s environmental impact.

A ship’s refit is a major event that involves a mandatory in-depth inspection of certain components in order to ensure compliance with classification society standards. Consequently, the 170m-long, 27.2m-wide, 1700-TEU Marfret Guyane had to undergo a thorough and complete overhaul from stem to stern.

Marfret had the work done in a shipyard in Shanghai, a first for the company, who normally use European companies for repairs to its fleet. “The work carried out by Cosco Shipyard Shanghai China was to a high technical standard. The complete overhaul was also an opportunity to implement improvements to the ship’s performance to reduce its environmental footprint,” explains Guillaume Vidil. “We installed a ballast water treatment system. To reduce drag in the water, we also had the hull sandblasted and repainted with a special coating that improves penetration through water, thus reducing fuel consumption and, therefore, pollution,” points out Hugo Becquelin, superintendent in charge of the Marfret Guyane.

All hands on deck

For such a major refit -which included a week in dry dock- to be successfully completed, it was vital to prepare the specifications, carefully select the shipyard and service providers and order the parts in advance. “The Marfret Guyane arrived in Shanghai on 6th July 2022, barely a month after the lockdown had been lifted in the province. Due to the health crisis, it was the first time we had overseen a refit from a distance, with the help of a local agent,” adds Becquelin.

Replacement of hatchway seals, work on the guide rails and the three shipboard cranes, repairs to bulkhead and fuel bunker plating, replacement of ventilation ducts… between 50 and 80 workers from the shipyard and subcontractors (Mac Gregor, Optimarin, Radio Holland, Kawasaki Service Engineer…) worked flat out on the ship for more than a month.

The Marfret Guyane left the Chinese dry dock on 10th August last, ready for another five years of service. The ship is currently in service as part of a new eighteen-month charter contract. Following this successful refit, the sister ship Marfret Marajo could well be heading for China too next year.