Page 14: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2017)

CRUISE UPDATE

About the Author

Tim Schweikert, is president & CEO,

GE’s Marine Solutions.

Image: GE

New Horizons Cruise Industry

Challenges & Solutions for 2017 pproximately 130 million cently signed a joint venture agreement space on board ships is always at a pre- downtime and minimizes interruption to

Chinese citizens travel in- to design and build two cruise ships with mium; more cabin and facilities space ship operations. ternationally, making China the China State Shipbuilding Corpora- means higher revenue potential. There- Enhanced manoeuvrability is also par-

Athe world’s largest outbound tion (CSSC) and Fincantieri. These will fore, power-dense engines, propulsion ticularly important for cruise ships. GE’s travel market in the world. With one- be the ? rst ships ever to be built in China motors and power electronics with a re- Marine Solutions is currently partner- sixth of the world’s population, many for the Chinese market and will be tai- duced footprint are the preferred choice ing with shipbuilders to design the next recognize this country as a market with lored to meet the needs of Chinese trav- for ship owners and operators. GE’s generation of marine propulsion ”pods,” huge potential. elers. compact, COmbined Gas turbine Elec- targeting improved fuel ef? ciency and

Until a few years ago, travel by ship In 2017, as the cruise market evolves, a tric and Steam (COGES) propulsion manoeuvrability.

was a common mode of transport, but number of industry changes and consid- system can help save valuable space on

China’s rapid economic evolution has erations are coming to bear. board. Clean Sailing attracted more people to leisure travel Derived from GE’s powerful aircraft Following the COP21 Paris Agree- opportunities and the luxury holiday ex- Advanced Technology engines, GE gas turbines already oper- ment, emissions reduction has been high perience cruise liners can offer. It is an- The attraction of going off the beaten ate on cruise ships, eight of which fea- on the agenda for every industry. In fact, ticipated that the number of Chinese pas- track has given rise to the expeditionary ture COGES arrangements. With little the marine industry as a whole is re- sengers will reach 4.5 million by 2020, travel market. Many of these adventure maintenance required, COGES makes sponsible for about 2.5 percent of global which is more than 20 percent of today’s holidays involve a cruise element, and possible the reduction of up to four en- greenhouse gas emissions.

global cruise passengers. The relaxed this growing sector, with demand for gineering crew members versus diesel- In an effort to curb emissions, vari- visa rules also mean that China is set to smaller vessels, is impacting the indus- powered ships. For normal scheduled ous governmental organizations around accommodate more foreign visitors from try. At the other end of the market, there maintenance, the entire turbine can be the world are introducing strict regula- cruise vessels. is growth in very high-capacity, high- removed and replaced in a very short tions, which are set to impact maritime

Cruise shipbuilding is developing in speci? cation vessels for the luxury ex- time (approximately24 hours). The com- operations. In the European Union (EU), parallel, signalled by the move made by perience. bination of outstanding reliability and for example, new regulations come into

Carnival Corporation. The company re- Whatever end of the cruise sector, gas turbine swapping greatly reduces force in 2017 requiring any large vessel 14 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • APRIL 2017

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