Page 20: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2, 2006)

Cruise Shipping 20 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

By Henrik Segercrantz

Only a year ago, Aker Finnyards was reducing staff at its yards, when still suf- fering from the period of low volumes of cruise ship and the ferry newbuilding orders, which are the main market sec- tors of the company. Today, the situation has completely changed. Last year the company received 12 newbuilding orders, and has now an orderbook of 16 ships, valued at approximately $4 bil- lion.

The recent announcement by Aker

Yards of the acquisition of French ship- builder Alstom Marine, including the cruise ship yard Chantiers de l'Atlantique, created diverse reactions in

Finland. Aker Yards will own 75 percent of the new company, and Alstom will keep the remaining 25 percent until 2010. Aker Yards will pay $60.4 million for the 75 percent stake. Depending on the financial performance, the remain- ing 25 percent will be sold to Aker Yards for up to $151 million in 2010. An esti- mated $423 million will be injected by

Alstom into the newly formed company.

Yrjö Julin, president of Aker

Finnyards, who also heads the entire

Cruise Ships & Ferries sector of the

Aker Yards Group, expressed his satis- faction with this move, noting that the market volume in the cruise ship sector of the expanded group will increase to 40 percent, just a little less than the 45 percent share held by the Italian com- petitor Fincantieri.

The combined French and Finnish builders have produced a number of world class cruise ships through the years, including icons such as SS

France, Queen Mary 2, the Voyager class and the Freedom class ships. Aker

Yards will be in a position to fully lever- age Chantiers de l'Atlantique's large industrial capacity in cruise ships and naval vessels in Saint-Nazaire.

Locally, at the Rauma yard, the exist- ing plans to increase the size of the new- building dock to suit cruise ships, was put on hold, at least for the time being.

Aker Finnyards is currently building three 158,000 gt cruise ships for Royal

Caribbean International.

The world's largest Freedom class cruise ship newbuildings, each with a price tag of some $700 million, are due for delivery from the Turku shipyard in

April this year, in spring 2007 and in spring 2008. The hopes for continuing cruise ship construction at the Helsinki yard vanished last year, with the cancel- lations of the letter of intent from Star

Cruises' NCL for a 89,000 gt cruise ship and the cancellation of a luxury residen- tial cruise ship for FS Ocean Club Ltd.

Instead, the Helsinki yard, which used to deliver a Panamax cruise ship for

Carnival Cruise Lines every nine months throughout much of the 1990's, has now been converted to an assembly and outfitting yard for some of the sev- eral ferries Aker Finnyards has in its orderbook, with steel block production taking place in Turku or Rauma. With the acquisition of the French ship- builder, there should be good opportuni- ties for utilizing also the know-how of

Finnish naval architects in the big-size newbuilding projects anticipated for

Carnival Cruise Lines, when the Turku yard has for years been successfully dedicated to competitor Royal

Caribbean International.

The RoPax and passenger-car ferry sector has been very active lately. Aker

Finnyards is currently building altogeth- er seven ferries and RoPax ships - for

Norwegian Color Line, Estonian

Tallink, French Brittany Ferries, and

Finnish Viking Line.

Most of these include options. In addi- tion the yard is building three container carriers for Swedish B&N Nordsjöfrakt, and the fourth Hamina-class missile boat for the Finnish Navy's Squadron 2000.

Acquisition Consolidates Shipbuilding

The first 158,000 gt cruise ships for Royal Caribbean International, MS Freedom of the Seas, is due for delivery from Aker's Turku shipyard in April. Two sister- ships will be delivered in 2007 and 2008.

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