08 Sep 2016
P&O newbuild is one of three more for Meyer Group
Tuesday’s Carnival contracts with Meyer for three 180,000 GT LNG-driven cruise ships means the German group now has work until 2022 – its longest forward order booking time ever, writes Tom Todd
The contracts are for two 180,000gt ships for Carnival Cruise Line for delivery in 2020 and 2022 by Meyer Turku in Finland and for a third 180,000gt ship planned for delivery to P&O Cruises UK in 2020 from Meyer’s German yard in Papenburg. The engine rooms for all three ships will be built at Meyer subsidiary Neptun Werft in Warnemünde – the inland cruise ship builder that was recently appointed to build such components for all newbuildings in the Meyer Group.
The new Carnival ships will be based on Carnival’s new ‘green cruising’ design and will be part of the first generation of cruise ships to be fully fuelled by LNG. Carnival said that was “an industry first and an environmental breakthrough that will produce the most efficient ships in the company’s history. They will use LNG to generate 100 percent of the ship’s power both in port and on the open sea” it added.
However no details of the innovative new engines were released. Carnival spokesman Roger Frizzell told The Motorship: “we are not announcing these additional details at this time, but hope to do so in the near future”. P&O said much the same.
A further interesting aspect of the latest Carnival orders is that to make possible the scheduled 2020 delivery by Meyer Werft of the P&O newbuilding, the delivery of a second LNG newbuilding of more than 180,000GT for AIDA Cruises in that year and of a similar LNG ship for Costa Cruises, will be put back to 2021.
Meyer spokesman Günther Kolbe said “the new contracts mean we have work into 2022 and there has never been a time when orders have been in hand for such a long time. As a result, prospects for long-term growth and employment in Meyer yards are good and they can continue to hold their own on a strongly contested international shipbuilding market.”
“The Motorship” News
