Icelandic fishing company Brim is reported to be in talks with Greenlandic operator Arctic Prime Fisheries to negotiate the sale of a factory trawler currently under construction at the Armon shipyard at Gijon in Spain.
Brim made the announcement of the negotiations with Qaqortoq fishing company Arctic Prime Fisheries to the Icelandic stock market, stating that a conclusion is expected before the end of the year.
The Rolls-Royce-designed factory vessel was ordered before company’s change of ownership and management – when it was still HB Grandi – and the new vessel was predicted to become the most sophisticated factory vessel of its kind anywhere in the world. The intention had been for the new trawler to be delivered to HB Grandi in December 2019.
The 81 metre trawler has a beam of 17 metres and fishroom capacity for around 1000 tonnes of production on pallets.
Last year it was also announced that Skaginn 3X would be providing the trawler’s processing deck, which is to include Marel’s FleXicut system and packing robots.
HB Grandi had already sold factory trawler Therney ahead of the expected delivery of the new ship before the company’s new owners stepped in. Since then, the company has been renamed Brim and has slimmed down its fleet. Fresher trawler Engey, one of a trio of newbuilds, has been sold to Russia, replaced as older trawler Helga María has been de-mothballed. Factory trawler Vigri, which has already been acquired by Brim’s owners, has been integrated into the company fleet.
