Meyer Turku Announces 450 Permanent Layoffs

Posted on 29 April, 2020 by Spacejunkie2

A cruise ship under construction at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Turku, Finland. Photo: Meyer Turku

HELSINKI, April 28 (Reuters) – German shipyard Meyer Werft’s Finnish subsidiary on Tuesday started statutory talks to lay off up to 450 of its roughly 2,000 employees because of a hit to business from the coronavirus pandemic.

The shipyard, in Turku on Finland’s west coast, had initially started talks over temporary layoffs but said the market situation had now forced it to look for permanent cuts.

“These negotiations will include the permanent layoff of 450 people and another 900 are affected by other measures. These include temporary layoffs of different length, work time adjustments and other arrangements,” the company said in a statement.

Instead of ramping-up from one to two large ships delivered per year until 2023, the assumption is now that the Turku yard will build just one large cruise ship per year, it added.

“The corona pandemic has changed the situation unexpectedly and totally. We are facing the fact that the corona-caused pause in cruising requires to stretch the order book,” said Meyer Turku Chief Executive Jan Meyer. (Reporting by Anne Kauranen; Editing by Mark Potter)

TUI Poised to Be Biggest Premium European Cruise Line

Posted on 8 August, 2018 by Spacejunkie2

Mein Schiff 6

The runaway growth from TUI Cruises targeting German cruise passengers will have an unintended effect for the cruise line: it will become the biggest operator in Europe offering a premium level product experience in the near future.

Come 2019, the brand will have a fleet of six modern large Mein Schiff ships, plus the existing Mein Schiff 2, for a total of seven vessels and over 17,500 berths, with a projected capacity of over 650,000 guests.

This will move them past P&O UK, which has been the largest premium European brand for some time, which has a projected 2019 capacity of around 550,000 cruise passengers with seven ships and 17,311 berths.

Other premium lines in Europe include Cunard Line, Fred. Olsen and Saga Cruises.

TUI Cruises Orders New Ships from Fincantieri

Posted on 13 July, 2018 by Spacejunkie2

TUI Cruises has ordered two new cruise ships from Fincantieri.

The new class of vessel will be powered by LNG and will be built at the Monfalcone shipyard. The ships will be delivered in 2024 and in 2026, respectively.

It marks the third ship order in the last two weeks and pushes the order book to 110 new ships.

Fincantieri said the ships would be around 161,000 tons, making them the largest in TUI’s fleet, which is getting new 110,000-ton ships in 2019 and 2023 as well.

“With the new class of ships, we are responding to the wishes of our guests and creating offerings that will also inspire new cruise passengers. As with the other ships in the fleet, the passenger/space ratio remains generous,” stated Wybcke Meier, CEO of TUI Cruises. “The decision to run the two additional low-emission new builds is a logical continuation of our environmental strategy.

“With the new class of ship, we are responding to the wishes of our guests and creating offerings that will also inspire new cruise passengers to spend a holiday on board with us. As with the other ships in the fleet, the passenger/space ratio remains generous,” she continued.

TUI Group recently said its cruise brands were benefiting from a “shortage of supply” in a recent investor presentation.

While commenting the announcement, Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri, said: “These will be the largest ships ever built in Italy: we proved once more we can provide the market with the best mix of reliability and innovation, pillars of Made in Italy and distinguishing features of Fincantieri in the global shipbuilding landscape. The project we developed and offered to the client allowed us to achieve this outstanding commercial record, which is not just about adding a new brand to our client portfolio, but also a confirmation of the absolutely cutting-edge technological content of our products. All of these factors consolidate our leadership in the field and further extend the workload horizon of our shipyards, which has no comparables in any other industrial sector.”