Page 44: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2018)

THE SHIPYARD ANNUAL

Cruise & Ice bring shipbuilding in

Finland to the Fore

Maritime Reporter & Engineering News’ correspondent in Helsinki, recently visited several shipyards in Finland and found vibrant new construction activity and investment.

BY HENRIK SEGERCRANTZ

After the previous yard owner of the of network companies from Finland and “The physical construction of a new fueled but the LNG tanks were placed

Turku Shipyard, South Korean STX, from around the world.” cruise ship today takes 1.5 to two years, inside of the hull. These vessel were ran into ? nancial dif? culties the ship- The Meyer family has been running its with the whole project taking some three good references for the coming cruise yard was acquired in 2014 by the Meyer shipbuilding company for seven genera- years,” said Mylly. Of the total value of ship newbuildings, most of which are

Group of companies. The Finnish Gov- tions now, since 1795. Today Jan Meyer the cruise ship, the steel represents about now running on LNG as fuel.

ernment remained a minority sharehold- is heading Meyer Turku, which includes 10 percent, with the remaining 90 per- Between 2014 and 2017 Meyer Turku er until May 2015. The German Meyer a cabin module factory Piikkiö Works. cent coming from the machinery, equip- built, for German TUI Cruises, the

Group is a family owned company oper- Investment in any shipyard is the price ment and designing and out? tting of the 99,800-gt cruise ships Mein Schiff 3, ating three shipyards: of staying in business, and Meyer Turku ship. Ultimately, all of the investment in 4, 5 and 6, and recently, the 20m longer • Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germa- is no exception, as it is in the midst of a equipment and procedure is designed to 111,500-gt New Mein Shiff 1 was deliv- ny, employing 3,200 people, $234m investment program stretching to help speed along the process of building ered, ? tted with scrubbers and catalysa- • Meyer Turku in Southwestern Fin- early 2020. Investment includes building large, quality cruise ships. “Today we tors. The current record size orderbook land with 1,900 employees, and a new cabin module factory, a new auto- are building (delivering) approximately of Meyer Turku stretches until 2024. The • Neptun Werft in Rostock, Germany mated facility for pre-treatment of steel one and a half ships per year. We used cruise vessel New Mein Schiff 2 will be with 500 employees. plates and a fully automated steel storage to build one ship per year. Eventually, delivered early 2019.

The cruise ship boom has resulted in is being built. we will build a large ship every eight Having earlier built a large number the demand for ever bigger cruise ships “We want a system that works such months,” Mylly said. of cruise ships in Finland, the Carnival and the River Ems which feeds the Mey- that whenever the steel halls need a steel group is now back, with a large series er Werft yard in Papenburg has restricted plate of a certain type, size and thickness, Cruise Boom Continues of 180,000-gt cruise ships ordered for the size of ships possible to be con- one can basically just press a button an The cruise ship building market is its Costa and Carnival brands, all ? tted structed there, so the yard in Turku was the automation will bring the needed ma- booming, with approximately 100 cruise with dual-fuel LNG machinery. Costa strategic as it allows for bigger ships to terial,” Mylly said. Currently, new panel ship currently on order. According to Smeralda is to be delivered later in 2019, be built. Whereas the two big shipyards lines, welding lines and plasma cutting Royal Caribbean International, 27M followed by a cruise ship for Carnival mainly concentrate on building cruise lines are also being built. “All of the passengers are set to cruise in 2018 with Cruise Lines in 2020 and a second ship ships, the Neptun Werft focuses on river halls will look quite different in two or 25 newbuilds to enter service in 2018. for Costa Cruises in 2021, with another cruise vessels, and lately the yard has three years. The investments go through The last decade saw a 51% growth with 180,000-gt LNG cruise vessel for the supplied Meyer Werft with ship sections. all of the phases of building, starting 310 cruise ships. The cruise ship market Carnival brand to follow.

The ? rst engine room sections also for with the bottle necks seen, such as with is growing steadily with a current lower Also in the works is the ? rst of two

Meyer Turku will be built this year, for the crane capacity and cabin installation, berth annual growth of some 6-7%. The Icon-class vessels for Royal Caribbean the Costa Cruises newbuilding to be de- ? tting of the blocks. Now that is being growth is steady providing for an excel- International, a series of 200,000-gt ves- livered next year. ? xed with a new gantry crane, followed lent prospective for the Finnish shipyard. sel that also uses LNG and MGO as fuel

Shipbuilding in the Turku facility dates by added automation in the production.” Meyer Turku and Meyer Werft in Ger- and will be ? tted with fuel cells to han- back to 1737, and while shipbuilding has The new 1,200-ton gantry crane from many have together a market share of dle parts of the hotel power consump- remained a staple, the technologies and Kone Cranes, almost ready to enter ser- some 40%. tion. TUI Cruises has booked a slot for technique have changed dramatically. vice at the writing of this article, com- The Viking Grace ferry, sailing be- Mein Schiff 7, a diesel-electric sistership “Earlier most of the ship equipment plements the existing 600t crane and tween Finland and Sweden was deliv- to New Mein Schiff 1 and 2, for delivery and systems were built at the yard; to- will allow for building bigger blocks ered in January 2013. This 2,800 passen- in 2023, and the second Icon cruise ship day we have a network of up to 800 with more pre-out? tting. An increasing ger vessel was the ? rst lique? ed natural for Royal Caribbean is to be delivered in sub-contractors supplying and working amount of work is directed towards the gas (LNG) fueled (dual-fuel) passenger 2024. for each single ship,” said Said Tapani earlier phases of production where the ferry, with the fuel tanks place outside “The current orderbook is the best this

Mylly, Communications Manager at work can be done more as industrial pro- on the aft deck. In January 2017 the yard yard has ever had, and it is also the lon-

Meyer Turku. “The shipbilding process cesses. “The goal is to build the most ef- delivered the 2,850 passenger Tallink gest industrial orderbook in Finland,” today is heavily dependent on the work ? cient shipyard in the world.” Megastar ferry. This vessel is also dual- said Mylly. The production volume will 44 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • AUGUST 2018

MR #8 (42-49).indd 44 MR #8 (42-49).indd 44 8/6/2018 10:08:00 AM8/6/2018 10:08:00 AM