Crystal Cruises is evaluating the impact of a one-month halt of operations by German shipbuilder MV Werften on an expedition cruiseship.
The Genting Hong Kong subsidiary had been scheduled to take delivery of the ship later this year.
MV Werften will pause operations at its Rostock, Stralsund and Wismar shipyard facilities for about four weeks as a preventative measure to protect employees against Covid-19, Crystal said.
The shipyard is completing the final fitting out work on the 19,500-gt ice-classed Crystal Endeavor, which is slated to make its first cruise from Tokyo in August.
"We are assessing this situation and how it might impact Crystal Endeavor, and we will provide an update as soon as we can," Crystal said in a statement on its webpage.
Crystal Cruises and MV Werften are owned by Genting Hong Kong, but the Crystal Endeavor is not. It was sold in February to SNC Endeavor Leasing, a financing vehicle owned by two wholly owned subsidiaries of bank Credit Agricole, in a €350m ($384m) sale-and-leaseback deal.
Genting Hong Kong, as one of the main players in the Asian market through its Dream and Star Cruises brands, felt the impact of the coronavirus outbreak earlier than most of its industry peers.
With the company expecting to record substantial losses in the first half of 2020, senior managers have agreed to take pay cuts of between 20% and 50% for the rest of the year, which should reduce its shore-side wage bill by an estimated $15m, or 16%.
Cancellations announced
Recent moves by its Dream Cruises brand indicate that the company is far from confident that there will be a quick resumption of cruise operations, at least not in the Asia-Pacific.
On Wednesday, Dream Cruises announced that it was cancelling the Australian cruise season scheduled for its 75,300-gt cruiseship Explorer Dream (built 1999) between October 2020 and February 2021.
The company cited concerns over the coronavirus impact for the decision. No alternative programme has been announced.
Dream Cruises' 150,600-gt World Dream (built 2017) arrived this week in Rotterdam, where it will undergo a short refit.
Why the ship has been repositioned from Asia to Europe and what plans Genting Hong Kong has for it have yet to be announced.
The company could not be reached for comment.
