EDITORIAL COMMENT
Aker + Alstom: a new force in European shipbuilding
S
EISMIC metamorphoses in the international commercial shipbuilding world are relatively far and few between; possibly the last one of major significance was Japan's recent re-shuffling of its leading shipbuilders into fewer but stronger groups. The astounding news of early January that two European giants from totally different cultures, Aker Yards (mainly Scandinavia) and Alstom Marine (France), are to join hands - in effect, the acquisition of most of Alstom Marine by Aker - must be seen as a bold and positive shift towards a more optimistic future for Europe's generally beleagured marine industries, at a time when much construction and equipment manufacture is now taking place in the Far East. It is hoped to conclude a deal by the end of March this year. No direct impact on employment is envisaged. Maybe other yards might consider similar moves? The proposed deal only affects high-value ships, particularly cruise liners, but the three LNG carriers on order at Alstom Marine are not included in the sale; they will be completed by the new company as a subcontractor. No specific mention is made of future LNG ships, nor of Aker's expertise in ice-going ships; these are both exceedingly interesting - and high-value - markets at present where new opportunities are currently opening up, eg, with the imminent completion at the Helsinki yard of
Good news for the new Scandinavian/French group: an impression of the new mega-cruise liners for 3887 passengers to be built at Saint-Nazaire for Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC).
share would be sold to Aker Yards) actually state that they will focus 'on high-value-added tonnage, including cruise liners'. Alstom's Marine 2010 programme, which follows the successful three-year CAP21 project, would continue, and the new company would, it is planned, benefit from 'a broadened product range and strong industrial synergies'. Three LNG tankers currently completing or building at
St Nazaire - including the CS1 containment-system guinea pig Gaz de France Energy, which is still being repaired and remodelled as a result of most unfortunate containment membrane problems - are specifically excluded from the deal. At the end of 2003, Alstom Marine's chairman, Patrick Boissier, said he believed that LNG construction prices generally are no longer competitive in Europe. However, it is well to remember that Aker Finnyards is still believed to retain an interest in gas tankers; today, this work is centred on the two Aker Ostsee yards in Germany. A large purpose-built factory at Turku, in Finland, was capable of manufacturing and assembling Moss-type spherical LNG tanks. Only four ships were actually built using tanks from this plant (the Murabaz class, featured in Significant Ships of 1996), following which the trend seemed to be towards the GTT membrane concepts.
Nevertheless, as we noted in our May 2005 Editorial Comment, Moss Maritime continues with investigations into refined spherical-tank systems; recent events at Samsung, in Korea, with secondary barrier leakages on a BG membrane-type LNG carrier, plus those problems at Saint-Nazaire, and the belief by some that spherical tanks may prove superior in the new gas latitudes off northern Norway and the Russian Arctic coasts, might turn the tide once again in favour of the sphere, with its easily calculable sloshing motions.
Norilskiy Nickel. Last year, Aker announced that its Helsinki site, with its enclosed construction dock, would concentrate on ferries.
Under the Scandinavian/French link, it is proposed to establish a new company centred on the two Alstom yards - Saint-Nazaire (large) and Lorient (small). The type of ship in which these two groups are most successful and on which the are primarily pinning their hopes - cruise liners and luxury ferries - are not sectors in which Chinese, Korean, and Japanese shipbuilders yet have great impact on the global scene. Even so, this may well change as China builds up its experience; for example, Jiangnan Shipyard recently completed two new ro-pax ferries for China Shipping Passenger Lines; one of these, Pu Tuo Dao, is featured in RINA's newly published Significant Ships of 2005.
In Korea, Samsung has had, for several years, determined ambitions in high-grade ferries and cruise liners. Some success has been achieved in exporting quality ferries to Europe, such as the 30knot displacement ferries for Minoan Lines and now the newly delivered Maersk Dunkerque. The latter is the first of a trio of English Channel ferries for Norfolk Line, a group member of that most discerning of European owners, Maersk (AP Möller group). Aker Yards (the dominant company in the new partnership, owning 75% of the newly created company) and Alstom Marine (which will retain the remaining 25% until 2010, when, depending on financial performance, this
THE NAVALARCHITECT FEBRUARY 2006
Scandinavia and France are totally different spiritual cultures but today each has a first-rate reputation for quality cruise liners and ferries, including Queen Mary 2 and the soon-to-be-delivered Freedom of the Seas, to mention only two. Perhaps the proposed union might result in some revolutionary and real new concepts for shipbuilding from the pooling of two mindsets - and cause concern at competitors Fincantieri, in Italy, and Meyer Werft, in Germany.
What the reaction in Korea to the new link will be is
difficult to gauge at the present time. Construction of a large cruise liner (or cruise-style ferry) remains an expensive business, because of large number of man- hours required for quality outfitting. Far East yards may justifiably consider that there are still possibilities of shrinking some of these costs and thus win a portion of any future new orders.
Since the completion of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's Song of Norway in 1970 - generally considered the mother of all modern cruise liners - that market has gathered pace and grown relentlessly, until two or three years ago that is, and particularly following the events of September 11, 2001.
Mediterranean Shipping's brand-
new contracts for a pair of 3887-passenger liners at Alstom Marine - probably the highest passenger number ever - may well represent the tip of a new pinnacle to be attained and, combined with Carnival's new orders at Fincantieri, a new market mini-boom. They also show that size really does matter today. Such large designs may not be particularly people-friendly but they certainly benefit from economies of scale.
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