China Merchants Industry Holdings (CMIH), part of state conglomerate China Merchants Group, has unveiled a cruiseship newbuilding order that will be the first to be fully designed and constructed by Chinese companies.
According to a company statement, China Merchants Cruise Shipbuilding—a CMIH subsidiary—is contracted to build one firm and three optional cruiseships with 37,000 gross tonnes each for Shanghai Style Cruise Industry Development.
The 660-passenger vessel will be designed by Style Cruise itself, which has been developing research capacity in building cruieships with China Classification Society (CCS) since 2018.
“This a milestone for Chinese cruise shipbuilding and operation…China’s ambition in building its own cruiseships is finally being realised,” CMIH general manager Simple Hu said.
Jointly classified by CCS and Bureau Veritas, the ship will have a length of 204 metres, width of 27 metres and depth of nine metres.
Upon delivery in 2022, the vessel will be flagged in China and operated by Style Cruise in South China Sea.
“China has not had any China-flagged cruiseships fully constructed and designed by Chinese firms,” Shanghai Style Zhouli Zhao said. “This order results from the requirement of national shipbuilding development as well as our ambition.”
Few shipyards outside of Europe have managed to penetrate the cruiseship sector, where newbuilding demand is expected to continue rapid growth in the coming years.
Earlier this decade, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries suffered losses totalling $2.5bn when building two cruiseships for AIDA Cruises as a result of cost overruns and delays.
Chinese yards have been keen to tap into this niche sector—generally with support from experienced European players.
With technical aid from Italian yard Fincantieri, China State Shipbuilding Corp secured an order to build at least two 133,000-gt cruiseships for its joint venture with Carnival.
China Merchants Heavy Industry, another CMIH subsidiary, is constructing six to 10 200-passenger expedition cruisehips for Miami-based SunStone Ships.
Norway’s Ulstein Design & Solutions is responsible for the X-bow hull design and technical layout of the vessels. Its involvement includes the entire equipment package purchased in Europe and supervision of its installation.
“While building those polar expedition ships, we have gained construction skills, and experiences in project management and quality control,” Hu said.
“That lays the foundation for us winning the [Style Cruise] order.”
