Coral Expeditions is in growth mode as its Vietnamese-built newbuilding is set to be delivered on time.
The operator’s new 5,600-gt expedition cruiseship Coral Adventurer was floated out at the Vard Vung Tau shipyard in Vietnam early last week.
Jeff Gillies, the Australian company’s commercial manager, told TradeWinds that the project has been so successful that it could consider going for more orders.
The 120-passenger Coral Adventurer is set to be delivered in April next year, and Gillies described Coral Expeditions' experience of being the first company to order a cruiseship at Vard’s shipyard in Vietnam as being very positive.
He said the company did not encounter any of the difficulties and delays that other expedition cruise operators have had building vessels at yards that have had little or limited experience constructing cruiseships.
“Vard has a long history of building sturdy, oceangoing vessels," Gillies said. "The Coral Adventurer has bucked the trend that other companies have encountered. It is on track, on time, and has incurred no cost overruns.”
Major step up
The newbuilding is a major step up for Coral Expeditions, whose 1,800-gt Coral Discoverer (built 2005) has been the largest vessel in its three-ship fleet to date.
The expedition cruise operator specialises in trips to remote areas of northern Australia, such as the Kimberley and Cape York, as well as to Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
Gillies suggested that more ships of a similar size to the Coral Adventurer could be forthcoming.
“We are going through the process of determining our future fleet growth and that could involve ordering more ships," he said. "Nothing has been decided as of yet.”
Gillies said Coral Expeditions does not have any reservations about contracting more vessels, amid an orders boom for the expedition ship sector.
“What makes us comfortable is the strong growth in the expedition market and the cruise industry as a whole,” he said.
Patch impingement
Gillies noted that many of the expedition ships on order have been designed and built for specific routes and none appear to be impinging on Coral Expeditions’ patch.
“Most of the expedition cruise market has been building ships with polar capacity," he said. "We have not.”
The company enjoys a reasonable degree of protection against competition on its northern Australian cruises as they are considered domestic in nature and subject to cabotage restrictions.
The Coral Adventurer will fly the Australian flag and provide employment for 50 Australian seafarers.
Coral Expeditions recently told Australian media that its ships always sailed full and it had already secured AUD 20m ($14.35m) in forward bookings for the Coral Adventurer alone.
