NEAS adds ship to fleet, opens summer sealift
President calls addition ‘investment in the future of Nunavut’
The MV Ukpik is the newest addition to NEAS Group Inc.’s fleet of vessels. (Photo courtesy of NEAS Group)
A new ship is being put into service by NEAS Group Inc. for its summer sealift.
The MV Ukpik, named after the “wise snowy owl,” according to a company news release, has been added to the fleet of NEAS Canadian-flagged, Inuit-owned container vessels.
NEAS Group, a joint venture by Makivvik Corp. and Transport Nanuk Inc., provides sealift shipping across Nunavut and Nunavik.
The approximately 140-metre-long ship offers “specialized heavy lift capacity for safe and reliable ship-to-shore discharge,” the release, issued June 13, said.
The demand for shipping in the Arctic and growth of business prompted the company to purchase the vessel, said president Daniel Dagenais.
“It’s an investment in the future of Nunavut and the confidence that the [territory] will continue to grow and the economy will grow,” Dagenais said of the addition of the ship.
He said the vessel cost between $20 million and $25 million.
The ship isn’t brand new — it’s been in service for more than a decade. But Dagenais said the MV Ukpik is newer than most of NEAS current ships and will allow the company to retire some of its older vessels.
“The ship could also undergo additional changes in the next few years in order to potentially introduce different types of equipment on board to save fuel or potentially use electricity or some type of alternative fuel,” he said.
A ferry to labrador
It’s time to get a new fleet from Port of Churchill to Kivalliq Region. Particularly with high demand of sealift services that cannot keep up with demands with this current company. Log books behind including short window opportunity of sealift to extreme mark-up services of freight!
I sure hope these will make shipping a lot faster, I hate it when they arrive late at Fall and have to get the ice breaker to clear their path and break up the ice that just formed.
What are they gonna ship? Cant ship food because of Canada’s best before dating..Used to order 40-45 seacans now 8-9 fly everything in because customers are picky with BB dating, yet we wonder why prices are high humm! anyone who thought cerb was bad wait for the Jordan’s principle reviews 2 times worse.
Let’s not mind the grocery companies raking in huge profits from Nutrition North and then doing as much as they can to pass the costs down to the consumer.
Trying to compare Cerb and Jordans principle shows how little of the “Truth” you know.