Japanese shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has added up its losses on a two-vessel luxury cruiseship building project after the delivery of the second vessel to Carnival’s AIDA Cruises.
MHI's delivery of the 124,000-gt AIDAperla last month marked the conclusion of the building project. In an update of its midterm business plan this week, the builder said the total final losses in constructing the two ships amounted to ¥274bn ($2.41bn).
The company also revealed that the first of the cruiseships, the 3,286-berth AIDAprima (built 2016), should have been completed at the end of 2014 but instead was finalised at the end of 2015. The AIDAperla was also one year late.
MHI had admitted earlier that it struggled with the design aspects of the project, which caused delays and cost overruns.
Under a reform plan for its shipbuilding business, MHI is now considering splitting off the division into a separate company. It has already agreed a business tie-up with compatriots Imabari Shipbuilding and Namura Shipbuilding, with the yards planning to carry out joint research and development as well as finding synergies on sharing shipbuilding capacity.
MHI also wants to cut the costs and time for building LNG carriers. It is also expanding its engineering business and is keen to set up an engineering centre to develop advanced machinery and ship systems.
