Australia-based TT-Line Company has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with German shipbuilder Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) for the construction of two new ships.

As informed, the next-generation passenger ferries will replace the company’s current Spirit of Tasmania vessels by 2021.

Mike Grainger, TT-Line Chairman, said the companies would now commence contract negotiations and agree to final design specifications.

“FSG was endorsed by the board after the company short listed a number of international shipyards to build the new tailor-made vessels,” he said.

“As previously announced, we expect to place an order for the new vessels in the first half of the 2018 calendar year and for them to be delivered in time to commence operations on Bass Strait in 2021,” Grainger added.

Built in Finland in 1998, Spirit of Tasmania I and Spirit of Tasmania II operate sailings across Bass Strait between Melbourne and Devonport on Tasmania’s north coast.