[ 58 ] THE SHIP OF THE FUTURE Most of the features that passengers can see, feel and touch on decks 8 and 9 of P&O Ferries’ Fusion-class is the work of North Sea Offshore Technology (NSO), a leading ferry and offshore industry turnkey interior contractor headquartered in Yantai with branch offices in Sweden, Estonia and Malaysia. As the company name suggests, North Sea Offshore Technology (NSO) started out in the offshore industry with the design and manufacturing of aluminium helidecks and related equipment installed on offshore platforms and offshore ships built at CIMC Raffles Yantai. As oil and gas offshore platforms are akin to floating cities, NSO quickly aimed higher. Thus, turnkey interior outfitting of the vast accommodation areas within oil and gas offshore platforms was on NSO’s radar soon after its 2008 inception, eventually becoming part of its core business and proving to be the steppingstone to diversification into passenger shipping. While the major European ferry operators traditionally built their ferries in Europe and South Korea, this role has been taken over by China during the past decade with Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) being the world’s most prolific builder of large ro-pax tonnage. Ro-pax ferries typically boast large accommodation areas and when operating on longer-distance routes, they are also fitted out with cabins. As ro-pax and cruise ships have many things in common, Chinese yards and the Chinese supplier cluster understandably see the construction of complex, high value-added cruise ships as a logical evolution in their quest to excel in the construction of large passenger ships. NSO is determined to play a key role in this process, already having gained credibility with the detailed engineering, production engineering, procurement and installation of window blinds and control systems as well as the installation and commissioning of architectural materials on luxury boutique expedition cruise ships built by China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) Co Ltd. 9,800M² OF INDOOR AND OUTDOOR SPACES P&O Ferries’ Fusion-class ships represent NSO’s single largest turnkey ferry interior outfitting project so far. Covering 9,800m² of indoor and outdoor space, the scope of work comprised design coordination, detailed engineering, production engineering, procurement, project management, material supply and outfitting of all public areas on decks 8 and 9. The furnishing of the vast outer decks, uniquely semi wrapped around “ As ro-pax and cruise ships have many things in common, Chinese yards and the Chinese supplier cluster understandably see the construction of complex, high valueadded cruise ships as a logical evolution in their quest to excel in the construction of large passenger ships”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=