TT-Line Company Pty Ltd in Australia and Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG (FSG) in Germany  have signed a letter of intent (LOI) for the construction of two ships to replace the current Spirit of Tasmania vessels, TT-Line said in a statement.

TT-Line chairman Mike Grainger 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 in the statement.

“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,” he added.

The two companies signed a preliminary agreement about the two ships in January. They will have a length of 212 metres, vehicle capacity of about 2,500 and they will be able to carry about 2,000 passengers. There will be about 280 cabins on board each vessel.

The ships will link the island of Tasmania to the Australian mainland. There is a ferry company called TT-Linie in Germany, but the two are not associated with each other in any way.