Meyer Group subsidiary Neptun Werft is to get a new production hall to build four 140m self-floating engine room units (FERUs) a year for installation in cruise ship newbuildings at Meyer’s German and Finnish yards, reports Tom Todd.
Neptun Werft managing director Raimon Strunck told The Motorship that the 140m x 60m x 45m hall – to open in 2018 – would be used to build entire engine rooms. The FERUs will each be 140m long, 38-46m wide and 16m high and include LNG tanks – a reference to ships planned to be built with LNG and fuel cell technologies.They will then be floated to Papenburg or Turku to be joined to other hull blocks.
“We will install all the components in Warnemünde, including main engines, gas plants, all the other components, pipes, cables, coating and insulation,” said Strunck. “In addition we will test and take the machinery into operation. Everything that lies in the 140m midship section of a ship [including fin stabilisers].will be built by us ready to use. Papenburg and Turku will not need to touch a single thing.”
Meyer said it was investing ‘millions’ in the new facility. Group head Bernard Meyer said: “Neptun is assuming an important role as a systems deliverer.”
Neptun has built more than 60 inland cruise ships and other vessels and will continue to do so. However the demand is declining and Strunck said Neptun would not be able to keep the yard busy solely with these vessels. The yard is refining its production processes to achieve series benefits with the new FERUs, something it already does with river ship series.
Strunck said: “We want to increase our productivity by at least 25%. The construction of four of these big components equates, in pure mechanical engineering terms, to the building of 12 river cruise ships a year.”
The Meyer Group is building more than 21 cruise ships up to 2024, the biggest.of about 209,000gt, with power needs of 60-80MW. In July the group reported that Neptun will build the engine rooms for three 180,000gt LNG driven newbuildings for Carnival, for delivery in 2020 and 2022. Meyer previously noted that Neptun would build all such components for Meyer newbuildings in future.
Motorship
2016-11-03
