Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has provided a business update ahead of its 2022 Q4 and year-end financial earnings release.
As of December 31, 2022, the company said its booked position was approximately 62 per cent for the full year 2023, in line with previously outlined expectations, and at higher prices than 2019 at a similar time.
Fourth quarter Occupancy was approximately 87 per cent, with the gap versus 2019 levels continuing to narrow sequentially.
‘We are also experiencing strong and broad-based onboard revenue generation even as occupancy increases,” the company said, noting it expects to report a net loss for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2022, and the first quarter of 2023.
Damen is seeing growing project scopes and has ships scheduled up to 2030 according to the 2023 Drydock and Refurbishment Report by Cruise Industry News.
“We have exact dates up to 2030 already,” said Rogier van der Laan, global product manager of cruise maintenance and upgrade services at Damen.
“We are seeing bookings far out. There are three back-to-back ships scheduled in 2025, and one is an especially huge conversion,” van der Laan added.
Damen completed multiple projects in 2022 as well. Among 2022 highlights were the Emerald Princess drydocking in Rotterdam, the Seabourn Odyssey in Curacao as well as the Celebrity Xpedition, and the winter conversion of the Maasdam into the Renaissance for French start-up CFC.
The former Maasdam arrived at Damen’s Brest, France, facility in October, entered drydock in November and is scheduled to start sailing in the spring.
The yard will handle steelwork, maintenance and more, and help interior contractors with logistics, container shipments and more.
“With the supply chain problems, logistics can be a challenge. For the yard, it’s not a problem, but getting supplies from the manufacturers can be a big issue and the price is going up everywhere,” he said.
Overall, van der Laan said the outlook was “very good” for the company’s yards, with its European facilities looking after ships of any size and its Curacao drydock perfectly suited for smaller ships and expedition ships moving between the polar regions.
Across the industry, van der Laan said that Tier III updates for ships would be a trend in coming years, allowing them to sail in sensitive areas.
Planning has tightened up with changing budgets and project scopes from cruise customers, meaning five to six months out instead of a year for a project plan.
“But we are flexible. It’s always changing,” van der Laan said. “There can be change orders or unforeseen steelwork, and we can do that.”
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced today that it is proposing to sell $500.0 million aggregate principal amount of its senior secured notes due 2028 in a private offering.
The Notes and the related guarantees will be secured by first-priority interests in, among other things and subject to certain agreed security principles, thirteen of the company’s vessels that also secure its senior secured credit facility.
The company said the Notes will be guaranteed by subsidiaries that own the vessels that will secure the Notes.
“We intend to use the net proceeds from the Notes Offering to repay a portion of the term loans outstanding under our senior secured credit facility that will become due in January 2024, including to pay any accrued and unpaid interest thereon, as well as related premiums, fees and expenses,” the company said in a filing.
