Meyer Werft first to win new cruise order
Artist impression of the newbuilding for NYK Cruises (Source: Meyer Werft)
A subsidiary of global logistics group Nippon Yūsen Kabushiki Kaisha, NYK Cruises, has placed an order with Meyer Werft to build a 51,950gt vessel in the shipyard’s covered building dock in Papenburg.
The 229-m long vessel will be powered by LNG and have capacity for 744 passengers in 385 cabins. On delivery, the ship will join NYK Cruises’ Asuka II, a high-end vessel built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1990 operating in Japan’s luxury cruise segment.
As the first cruise vessel contract to be placed since the beginning of the pandemic, the deal is a landmark achievement for Meyer Werft. Moreover, it was the first time in the shipbuilder’s 226-year history that all ship plans and contract documents were prepared and negotiated via video conferencing.
The announcement of the contract coincided with delivery of the Quantum Ultra-class Odyssey of the Seas to Royal Caribbean Goup. The 169,000gt vessel marks the final delivery in the five-ship Quantum class, one of the largest ship series built by Meyer Werft to date.
These achievements are undoubtedly a major boost for the shipbuilder and its employees. However, Meyer Werft’s managing director, Thomas Weigend, pointed out that the shipbuilder still has only two vessels on order for construction in 2025.
“Thanks to this order, we now have a second ship in the works in 2025,” he said. “But it remains the case that we still have a lot of work missing for the year 2025. Our production in Papenburg is designed for an annual construction volume of 420,000gt, but the two ships in 2025 have a total volume of only 182,000gt.”
