In what is being seen as a landmark deal, Japanese cruise shipping company NYK Cruises and Meyer Werft have signed a contract for the construction of a new cruise ship. Meyer Werft said it is the first shipyard in the world to have succeeded in winning a newbuilding order for a cruise ship since the beginning of the pandemic and the NYK Group is now placing its first order in Papenburg.
“It is another very important step towards securing the Papenburg site. New orders are absolutely necessary for our current programme for the future with enormously important savings and very many different measures,” said Jan Meyer, Managing Director of Meyer Werft. “We have been able to win our new customer from Japan as a new customer in this extremely difficult global market situation and worldwide competition with the best ship concept, innovations, quality and a very challenging price for us. My thanks go to the entire staff and especially to the Sales & Design department, which has done a great job in this tense phase. This is the first order in the shipyard’s 226-year history where all contract documents and plans were prepared and negotiated via video conferencing. The effort has paid off.”
Imke Knoop, Head of Sales & Design at Meyer Werft commented, “The pandemic allows shipping companies all over the world to freely choose shipyard locations.. The challenge is to survive with our combination of design, quality, innovation and, of course, under ever-increasing price pressure in the face of worldwide, sometimes heavily subsidised, competition. The order has come just in time; so far only one new building has been in our halls for 2025.”
The new order is an important addition in 2025, from 2021 – 2025 Meyer Werft’s capacity utilisation will remain at a low level. “Of course we are delighted about the newbuilding order, but at the same time we have to push ahead with our future programme, continue to convert and optimise the shipyard so that we can also deliver the ship with economic success,” explained Thomas Weigend, Managing Director of Meyer Werft. Thanks to this order, we now also have a second ship in the works in 2025, namely a small and a large ship. 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.”
“The current newbuilding order is not a turnaround from our difficult situation. In Papenburg we are designed for the series production of very large cruise ships,” added Jan Meyer. “Now we are building the prototype of a small ship without the option of sister ships. Therefore, it is to be classified as another step among many necessary measures. At the same time, it is also a positive signal: it is a completely new customer for Meyer Werft, we have asserted ourselves on a global market against global competition.”
The newbuilding for NYK Cruises is scheduled for delivery in 2025 and will be LNG-fuelled. This modern and currently most environmentally friendly technology for cruise ships was successfully used for the first time by Meyer Werft in 2018 as a global innovation for complete ship propulsion. Meyer Werft is also implementing numerous customised solutions for the current new order. These include hydrodynamics optimised in accordance with the planned routes as well as on-board facilities adapted to the needs of Japanese passengers and, as a result of the pandemic, also offering innovations to the air-conditioning systems and contactless controls.
Technical data New building for NYK Group
- Length: 228.86m
- Width: 29.80m
- Tonnage: 51,950GT
- Passenger cabins: 385 cabins
- Capacity: 744 passengers
- Crew: 470 Crew
- Fuel: LNG propulsion
