Page 43: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2020)

Global Markets: Cruise 2020 yearbook © napa74/AdobeStock

Market: Cruise

Guy Cooper, Vessels Value eading into 2020 the Cruise Industry was booming. billion. The 2010 built Mega Cruise ships are the hardest hit

Number of passengers who went on Cruises in 2019 area, falling in value by over 8% compared to the start of the was at an all time high. A trend mirrored by the expo- year.

Hnential fleet growth since the 1950s. However, COV- A total of 103 cruise ships are set for delivery over the next

ID-19 caused an industry wide shut down. Since the start of the eight years. 77 of these will be going live by 2024, meaning year, activity has fallen nearly 50%. This is a dramatic decrease the global fleet is set to increase by over 20% in the next three and is unprecedent in the cruise industry, especially when com- years. Adding a further $42.3 billion in value to the waters. pared to last year which during the same period, activity never The start of 2020 has seen the lowest numbers of cruise ship dropped more than 10%. These current lows are expected to orders placed since 2012. This year Mystic Cruises placed one continue, until normal operations slowly resume. order for 4x small cruise expedition ships. However, the cur-

Like activity, cruise values have also taken a tumble since the rent pause and delays on cruise ship orders can be seen as a start of the year. positive. With a large number of cruise ships on order leading

Some of these billion dollar assets have become financial li- into the year, the caution here is to ensure the market is not abilities with several high priced vessels are laid up and out of oversupplied by newbuilds without the required increase in de- action. The global cruise fleet has decreased in value by $6.36 mand and confidence of passengers to Ccruise again.

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