At a time when orders for new cruise ships are much thinner on the ground than they were before the global downturn five years ago, an otherwise barren six months for new contracts was saved at the end of July when – just like buses – three turned up at once, none of them expected. Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed it would be building a second Breakaway Plus ship with Meyer Werft for delivery towards the end of 2017. Taken with her earlier sister, due out two years earlier, the total investment is put at a daunting US$1.8 billion.
An even more attention-grabbing order came from luxury line, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which finally confirmed a very longstanding rumour by contracting a 738-berth ship worth about US$450 million with Fincantieri in Italy. This all-suite, all-balcony ship, the line’s fourth and claimed to be the most expensive luxury vessel ever built, will be named Seven Seas Explorer and will come into service in the summer of 2016.
French line, Compagnie Du Ponant, also ordered another new yacht from Fincantieri at a cost of about US$137 million, the price of the similarly sized Le Soleal, delivered in the second quarter of this year. This latest ship, the owner’s fifth, is due out in the spring of 2015.
Preliminary planning by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL), for its third Oasis-class ship to be built by the STX shipyard at St Nazaire, is also now coming to an end with construction set to start. At the time of going to press, the company had not yet committed to an option (set to expire in December) to build a fourth 5,400-berth Oasis ship at the French yard for delivery in 2018. The owner would not comment on the possible impact of reports that the troubled parent, STX in South Korea, wants to sell off its European yards in France and Finland as part of a recovery plan.
The line is also starting work with Meyer Werft on Quantum of the Seas, the first of three 4,180-passenger vessels being built by the German yard at a cost of $940 million each. At the end of May, RCL confirmed it is to build a third Quantum ship for delivery in mid-2016 – 18 months after the eponymous vessel and a year behind the second, Anthem of the Seas.
Orders apart, shipbuilders were concerned with two other topics – ship safety and the make-up and shape of the construction market in the future. Concern over what might happen if a major ship of more than 100,000 gt became involved in a catastrophe in a remote part of the world has engaged the industry since such ships were first built more than15 years ago.
But it took until 2010 for the industry’s answer, theoretically, at least, to come into force. This is the Safe Return to Port (SRtP) concept which, in essence, seeks to eliminate a single vulnerable point (which would lead to a breakdown) by increasing redundancy, the industry’s jargon for duplication. The other part of the plan is to create a safe area for passengers after a casualty.
Though this design became compulsory in all major passenger ships laid down after July 2010, it is a sign of the constrained times that the first completed ships incorporating it have only just started to appear on the market. First there was Norwegian Breakaway, followed two months later by Royal Princess, which was named in a blaze of publicity by the Duchess of Cambridge.
Christer Karlsson, Norwegian Cruise Line’s vice president, Newbuildings, who oversaw Norwegian Breakaway, says: “What we have done is to create a new stage between the casualty and abandoning ship, which remains the master’s decision. This has been thought about thoroughly by the industry and I think it is a major breakthrough in cruise ship safety. It is predicated on the core notion that in a casualty the ship itself is the best lifeboat.”
His counterpart at Princess Cruises, Stuart Hawkins, says that under SRtP a ship like the 140,000 gt Royal Princess needs to provide 1,000 miles of sailing at six knots in up to Force 8 weather to a safe haven port after a casualty. “The safe area for passengers should provide adequate water, heating, lighting and cooling systems.” It is thought the design may add as much as 10 per cent to the final cost of the vessel. From now on all major ships 120 metres long and more with three or more vertical fire zones will have to be built to this standard.
When STX announced it was putting its European yards in Finland and France up for sale it provoked speculation about the future shape of an already narrow market in which prices have dropped as much as 30 per cent in some instances since the global downturn. Robin Farley, the UBS cruise analyst on Wall Street, says that in the current market every owner is talking to every shipbuilder and she would not be surprised to see new faces emerge in cruise shipbuilding. But David Dingle, the Carnival UK chief executive, does not agree, believing that talk of new yards is speculative. (See interview on page 83.) Even allowing for STX, he believes the present market has more than enough capacity for the current reduced demand. If there were to be new faces they would most likely come from the Far East. Mitsubishi is now back in the market with two ships for AIDA after a gap of almost a decade. Many believe Hyundai, the leading series builder of cargo ships, could be next in the frame for a major cruise ship.
If there is a note of caution in the industry at present, nobody seems to have told Torstein Hagen, the man behind Viking River Cruises and, since last year, a new ocean counterpart. This new company has the potential for six 925-berth ships – two firm orders, two conditional contracts and two options. Ten more Viking Longship river boats have been ordered, two for delivery this year and eight by next spring. This makes 18 new river boats in two years, plus an option for another eight vessels with 2015 delivery. All the riverboats are being built at Neptun Werft in Germany, part of the Meyer Werft Group.
MSC Cruises boss, Gianluigi Aponte, who was pessimistic about ordering new ships six months ago, also now appears to be taking a brighter view. He says the line’s 12 vessels are not enough for a fleet aiming to be global.
“We have opted for a shorter and wider ship able to call in all Mediterranean ports. But I can’t say when and where we will order again.”
This article appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2013 edition of International Cruise & Ferry Review. To read the full article, you can subscribe to the magazine in printed or digital formats.