Coming off a big newbuild order from Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Daniele Fanara, director of new building and after-sales at Fincantieri, is positive about the future.
“We are serving all segments of the market, from small luxury vessels to mega-size vessels to upper premium,” said Fanara, speaking to Cruise Industry News. “This covers all the brands in the cruise industry.”
Fanara said Fincantieri was very proud to be working with a variety of operators and being able to serve each of them in a tailored customized way.
“We have cross-fertilization with our technology, including the capacity to design the vessel,” he added.
NCLH Order
The new Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings order for eight ships includes orders for all three company brands, with new classes of ships for each of them. Norwegian, Oceania and Regent will all get new bigger ships, with orders for the Norwegian brand stretching to 2036.
“We are proud of the trust that Norwegian gave us to develop such an important program,” said Fanara.
Looking at future technologies, Fanara said the ships were being developed.
“Our attention is focused on three main fuels,” he said. “One is LNG, one is methanol, and one is hydrogen. Hydrogen is the most innovative one. We are developing new ideas on how and when we can implement hydrogen onboard the vessels.”
New ships for Oceania and Regent are being developed to be methanol-ready.
“Today there is no real answer on the fuel of the future,” Fanara continued. “It’s a matter of availability. What’s important from our side is that we are always studying the latest technology available. We are also exploring CO2 capture technology.”
Fanara said among the alternative fuels, LNG was notable in the fact it was being used today.
“Ships are sailing on LNG. The other technology is in a different phase of development. We need to monitor them so we are ready to implement them if necessary,” he explained.
Questions are coming in from cruise lines on alternative fuel practicalities, Fanara said, but with the most questions on hydrogen.
“It is the most innovative, it is the most unknown.”
Industry
Fanara called the cruise industry resilient.
“Soon after Covid, the speed at which the industry recovered and came back to strong booking and revenue levels is incredible,” he said.
Fanara expects other orders to follow, citing market demand and the value gap between cruise- and land-based vacations.
Shipbuilding Costs
Costs are up to build ships.
“A greener vessel is for sure more expensive to build,” Fanara noted. “But is the value of this additional cost worth it for the industry?
“The owners can say the ships are more expensive. We had Covid, we had wars and the result of this has been inflation. If you mix inflation and the technology transition, the result is not less expensive ships.”
Unlike the scheduled cruise ship refurbishments, major refits may include even a cruise ship lengthening, like in the case of Royal Caribbean ship Enchantment of the Seas lengthened in 2005 (see the photo below). The Enchantment ship lengthening cost ~ US$55 million, it was a process of cutting the ship in two and inserting a whole new 73 ft (22 m) 3,500 tons midsection, pre-built at the Aker Finnyards. The month-long dry-dock at the Keppel Verolme shipyards (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) resulted in adding 151 brand new cabins, a 50% bigger Pool Deck area, a new kids area, a teen center, several new bars and lounges, an expanded main dining room, a new specialty restaurant. This “refurbishment cost” record was recently beaten by the CCL line and the US$155 million Carnival Destiny refit 2013 producing a brand new ship named Carnival Sunshine!
Cruise ship building prices are high enough to not meet the return requirement. Even the mighty Carnival Corporation (the largest cruise company in the world) puts its ship building plans on hold. Royal Caribbean is one of the few companies continuing to place orders for new ships – and not any ships, but the ever largest, the most innovative, the most expensive in the world. Still, most passenger ship lines are trying to keep their current fleet fresh and good looking. Two of the best examples are Holland America with its $450 million SOE program for ship renovations, and Carnival investing over $250 million to fully refit and refurbish 8 of its oldest vessels.
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