Page 34: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2003)

Cruise Industry Annual

Deltamarin Expands to China to Thwart Cruise Downturn

Finnish design specialist Deltamarin is synonymous with advanced cruise ship design and construction. The company, as has many of its colleagues in this country, have built a formidible empire of accrued cruise shipbuilding knowl- edge and experience which it has used to remain a key player in the international cruise market. But as the cruise industry stumbles, so too do the myriad of com- panies which serve it. While an extend- ed downturn is not generally forecast,

Deltamarin must find new business to keep its 320 employees busy and its sales at or near its 2001 mark of nearly

Deltamarin continues to evolve its business in the face of a cruise ship buying downturn. It offers everything from basic design to life cycle management. $26 million. To do this, it has trained its sites on expanding both regionally and by vessel niches served, with a move to

China fulfilling the former and a renewed focus on offshore, megayachts and chem carrier sectors to fulfill the lat- ter.

In assessing its immediate business prospects, the company sees China as a perfect fit for extending its Basic Design end of its business, an area that account- ed for 22% of its turnover in 2001. In

China, we would like to become the pre- ferred consulting and naval architecture firm for western owners building advanced ships, said Markku Kanerva, the company's director of business development. The company currently has a representative in Shanghai, but has plans to open an office in China "very soon."

The company seems well on its way to fulfilling the vision, with burgeoning business in China. DeltaMarin is involved with the construction of a series of six 8,000 dwt RoRo paper/trail- er carriers for Nordic Forest Terminals (Sweden) under construction at Jinling

Shipyard in Nanjing, China. The project to build the 528-ft. (160.5 m), 20-knot, 12,600 kW ships was begun three years ago. More recently, Deltamarin signed a contract with Jinling for design work on the 5,200 dwy high heavy vehicle/RoRo car carrier to be built for SeaPlane One of France. SeaPlane One is a joint ven- ture of Louis Dreyfus Amateurs from

France and Leif Hoegh ASA of Norway.

For this project — a 492-ft. (150 m), 21- knot vessel — Deltamarin will prepare for the yard the complete basic design for general, hull, outfitting, accommoda- tion, machinery and electric, including approvals. The vessel is specially designed for carrying aircraft parts fab- ricated in different countries in Europe for Airbus A380 planes, which requires a specialty vessel offering low humidity in the cargo spaces and good seakeep- ing.

Circle 33 on Reader Service Card

AKERIMERNER

Circle 281 on Reader Service Card

Kvaerner Masa-Yards experienced Builder* successful ships

More than thirty successful cruise vessels in operation on the world-wide cruise market have a very special thing in common.

Their birthplace is in Finland at Kvaerner Masa-Yards' two highly modern shipyards with their state-of-art design capability and production technology.

Kvaerner Masa-Yards Technology covers research and development, concept design and engineering services, shipyard and welding technology, after-sales services, and includes the Arctic Technology Centre (MARC) and the Welding Technology unit.

Kvaerner Masa Marine, Vancouver B.C., Canada and its affiliate company in Annapolis, Maryland, USA, are engaged in marine consulting engineering and marketing primarily in North America.

Kvaerner Masa-Yards offers creative design and production skills based on wide-ranging knowledge of the maritime business and professional ship production. [email protected]

The subsidiary Piikkio Works produces prefabricated cabin and bathroom modules. 34 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News