Asked why Germany has been so successful in securing cruiseship contracts, German Shipbuilding and Ocean Industries Association (VSM) chief executive Reinhard Luken pinpoints “specialisation and communication flow”.
“If you do this business over several decades, you build up a network, a very complex supply chain, where you know your players and where you have trusted relationships,” he says.
But the risk involved in building cruiseships is enormous for the yards and not reflected in the profit margins, which can be in the very low single digits.
