recent acquisition of Finnish engineering company Deltamarin is an example of its access to skilful cruise designers,” he said. The majority of Deltamarin’s shares were bought by Beijing- headquartered AVIC International Investments Ltd in October last year.


He summed up that he believed that


cruise shipbuilding would begin in China, and that it would be within this decade. Meanwhile, a somewhat bleaker


picture was painted for European shipyards. Mr Jack said that the orderbook would remain small for existing European yards and that there would not be enough orders for all four major shipyards – Meyer Werft, Fincantieri, STX France and STX Finland – in the long run. Fincantieri shipyard chief operating


officer Enrico Buschi acknowledged that analysis. The global orderbook had shrunk from an average of 12 ships per annum, he said, to eight-10 vessels from 2013 onwards. This meant that European shipyard supply would outstrip demand, leading to a “very aggressive” attitude of operators in pricing vessels, he predicted. However, Asian yards may not fare much better, if his analysis is correct.


He spoke of “extremely sophisticated demands” from customers and described “an increasing gap between production cost and the price that owners are willing to accept.” In his view “all these factors do not support the early entrance of Far East yards into this type of market and may witness some European yards having to leave this competition.” Royal Caribbean Cruises vice


president of technical projects and newbuilds Kevin Douglas highlighted that the crucial aspect when it came to newbuilds was energy efficiency. The company has five ships on order, all due to be delivered between 2014-2016 and he said that the common element to them all was energy efficiency. Modern ships are hitting targets of less


than half the fuel consumption of 40-55kg per day per passenger in an older ship, he said. “Therefore there will always be a demand from a business case point of view that as fuel prices get higher, we need more efficient ships.” He said that safety, energy and


environment were key industry wide considerations. Looking at safety, he said: “Safe return to port is a big element in our


Snapshot figures


2012: 20.3 million passengers 2013 (forecast): 20.97 million passengers 2013-2014: 25 new cruise ships to be launched Ocean lines: 10 new ships River cruise lines: 15 new ships US$7.1 billion of investment in new ships Past decade: 167 new ships launched


Source: CLIA


fleet, it is an industry wide criteria...it is a legal requirement that we [the industry] need to work towards.” As for environment-friendly features, he said that improvements in energy efficiency by improving hydrodynamics, particularly around the bulbous bow, was the biggest focus. With the Energy Efficiency Design Index expressing a ship’s overall efficiency, he said that the industry’s ambition should be not just to meet the terms specified, but to better them. PST


Call for operators to partner with yards over refits


A main message to come out of CSM is that cruise ship refits are gaining momentum. As CLIA CEO Christine Duffy said,


“the concept of renovation is not new but the scale of projects is.” She pointed out that executing a refit might take as long as building a new ship and be just as innovative. It was clear from the CSM’s refit


and revitalisation seminar that, as refits have boomed, challenges have grown more intense. Grand Bahama Shipyard chairman and CEO Carl-Gustaf Rotkirch said that a few years ago, a medium-sized refurbishment took the time of three-four cruises. In contrast, the current time in drydock equated to two cruises, which amounted to 1-2 weeks. “Bring in the yard as a partner


not as a subcontractor, that is one major message that I would like to stress,” he urged. “Hand over the execution and management of the


project to the yard as it is so much easier to manage on site.” As part of this concept Mr


Rotkirch also called for the refurbishment industry to emulate the newbuilding model as this would “unleash cost reductions.” He pointed out that, while management made decisions about newbuildings 24-36 month in advance, generally refit decisions were made late, preventing cost-efficient solutions. He added that while the yard


managed the entire newbulding project, refurbishment projects were more piecemeal with often 80 per cent outsourced to different service providers. Royal Caribbean Cruises’


director of technical projects Joseph Miorelli explained what the cruise line was looking for from a yard. The company has refitted 24 ships over nine years. “We want the yard to add value,” he said, explaining this


included technical expertise and competitive pricing. “We need the yard to act as a prime contractor ... yards must have a drydock big enough for vessels – we find some yards don’t have docks that are big enough.” Miorelli said that logistics was


critical as some drydocks were very challenging to get materials to and from, so dock crane capacity and access for material movement was needed. While work-in-service has


become more popular with some cruise lines, he explained that while RCC had recently made eight shop refits while one vessel was in service, the company was not so in favour of this trend. “We want a seamless event for passengers so in-service-work is somewhat frowned upon as it affects passenger experience on board. A big effort is made to consolidate all work in the out-of-service period.” Mr Miorelli added that there was


not so much value for the cruise line as work-in-service took cabins out of service.


www.passengership.info


Passenger Ship Technology I 2nd Quarter 2013 I 69


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