Thirty cruise ships on order with three leading European builders; refurbishments and upgrades offering opportunities for European yards and suppliers. Seatrade Europe to discuss latest trends.

The orderbooks of the three leading European cruiseship builders, Germany’s Meyer Werft, the Norwegian STX Europe group (formerly Aker Yards) and Italy’s Fincantieri stretch into the back end of 2012. Collectively these three have 30 ships on order of which seven will be delivered this year. Two vessels have already been handed over in 2009, both for Carnival Corp's brands.

Ship refurbishments and upgradal work is key for European yards and suppliers, requiring a new approach to the design process. Refurbishment is a part of the ship’s life and billions of dollars are being spent annually on upgrading older vessels.

At Seatrade Europe, the latest trends in shipbuilding and refurbishment will be presented, ranging from luxury brands destined for exotic destinations, to family fun on the biggest cruise ships in the world.

Meyer Werft shipyard, which is exhibiting at Seatrade Europe with its subsidiary Neptun, is fully booked until 2012. At the end of 2008 the company set a milestone with the 122.000 gt ship Celebrity Solstice; the biggest cruise ship ever built in Germany. A highlight in April this year was the delivery of AIDAluna, AIDA Cruises’ new flagship which started its maiden voyage after a spectacular christening at Mallorca.  Another three ships are being built for the Rostock-based cruise line. The ship yard is also building the first of two ships for Disney Cruise Line for delivery in 2011.

At STX Europe, excitement mounts as the biggest cruise ship in the world nears completion. The 225,000 gt ‘Oasis of the Seas’, with a capacity of 5,400 passengers plus nearly 2,000 crew, is being built at the Turku (Finland) shipyard. STX Europe, also exhibiting at Seatrade Europe, will be delivering ‘Oasis of the Seas’ to Royal Caribbean International in autumn this year, followed by ‘Allure of the Seas’ in 2010.

At Fincantieri, April’s delivery of ‘Costa Luminosa’ to Europe’s leading cruise line, Costa Crociere, will be followed by delivery of ‘Costa Pacifica’ in May and a double christening in Genoa in June. These two state-of-the-art cruise ships pave the way for the world’s largest fleet expansion with three additional ships being delivered to Costa Crociere by 2012.

New cruise line TUI Cruises, a joint venture of TUI AG and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, will christen its new ship, ‘Mein Schiff’ (My Ship) in May 2009. Formally the 'Celebrity Galaxy' (built 1996 at Meyer Werft), this has now been completely converted at Lloyd Werft in  Bremerhaven.  Two more ships will be introduced by TUI Cruises by 2012.

The market of river cruise ships is also on the move. The Neptun shipyard in Rostock-Warnemunde will deliver one river cruise ship in 2009 and one in 2010 to its customer A’Rosa. Last year Neptun built the river cruiser 'Premicon Queen', a further development of the innovative TwinCruisers, for the Munich based Premicon AG. River cruise specialists, Nicko Tours in Stuttgart, is also expanding its fleet with a 5 Star Deluxe Suite Ship ‘Nile Excellence’, offering cruises along the River Nile, and ‘Century Diamond’, the first German-speaking river cruiser at the Yangtze in China. Viking River Cruises is setting benchmarks with its 14th newbuild: This summer the company will introduce the first river cruise ship with a diesel-electric engine. ‘Viking Legend’ will be characterised by low fuel consumption and low noise emissions.