The global cruiseship orderbook continues to soar with Fincantieri signing a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with Princess for a pair of 4,300 passenger newbuildings.
At 175,000 gt each they will be the largest ever built in Italy.
Fincantieri’s Molfalcone yard is scheduled to deliver the vessels late 2023 and in the spring of 2025.
European passengership yards are on a roll, taking the lion’s share of world cruiseship orders which reportedly now total well over 100 newbuildings worth in excess of $60bn.
The Princess order also reinforces the cruise industry’s swing towards the use of LNG as a fuel.
Fincantieri says in a statement that the ships will be based on a next-generation platform design and the first for the Carnival Corp brand to be dual fuelled, primarily using LNG.
Giuseppe Bono, Fincantieri’s chief executive, said the industry was entering a new era “increasingly aimed at reducing the environmental impact.”
He described the Carnival group as the largest foreign investor in Italy.
Triest-headquartered Fincantieri has built 85 cruiseships since it re-entered the sector in 1990. Some 65 have been for various Carnival brands.
Another 49 cruiseships, including MoAs, are currently being designed or under construction for owners in Fincantieri group yards.
The shipbuilder’s recent successes include orders from Norwegian Cruise Line and TUI Cruises.
This month, NCL booked two more Project Leonardo Class ships, the fifth and sixth in a series signed for last year, worth a combined EUR1.6bn ($1,86bn).
Germany’s TUI, in a joint venture with Royal Caribbean of the US, ordered two 161,000-gt newbuildings at Fincantieri which at that point were also the largest ever to be constructed in Italy. Price of the Princess ships has not been disclosed.
