By
Rebecca Gibson |
Following the successful completion of a major refurbishment of Royal Caribbean’s Splendour of the Seas, the yard finished a second project in Royal Caribbean’s Royal Advantage programme on Grandeur of the Seas in May 2012.
These projects are part of Navantia’s commitment to improve its know-how in the ongoing learning curve that started in 2001. The yard has also advanced in terms of its facilities to provide clients with the best service we can in order to match the extremely exigent market conditions that surround the refurbishment market. The yard has been investing in new cranes especially designed for container movements; platforms for material and garbage easy access and removal; more, bigger and better skips for garbage handling; new discharge lines for seawater on the main cooling lines; and more covered storage.
Navantia aims to continue its partnership with cruise companies as a solid alternative for Mediterranean waters, not only for emergency and conventional drydocking, but also for major refurbishments such as the Royal Caribbean projects.
The yard has an extremely interesting order book for the rest of 2012, 2013 and even 2014, with projects involving five different top class cruise companies and nine vessels, ranging from conventional repairs to five major upgradings of four to five weeks each. This order book is providing the yard management and workers with huge empowerment to continue supporting this market, analysing the different needs of every client in order to demonstrate that our yard is a viable option for the repair and refurbishment of cruise vessels.
We are currently under advanced negotiations to add to this extensive list other projects which will be the perfect complement due to their exclusivity and peculiarities.
Navantia would like to warmly thank Royal Caribbean for its continuous support of our yard, the good relations that we enjoy and, last but not least, the conviction of its management a few years ago that our yard was a solid opportunity for them here in the Mediterranean. We are extremely proud of this relationship and we will do everything we can to expand it, providing the best service in every docking opportunity.
The future of our yard in this special segment depends on the continuing development of our work in a very modest way, understanding that every client has a need that we have to discover and satisfy. The hard work and fulfilment of our obligations with these owners will lead our yard to consolidate its name in the industry as a serious candidate for all cruise companies.
We learn new things every day in this exciting industry and would like to continue doing so through the years as it is the only way to improve our systems and products and offer better solutions to our clients every time.