Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings have been linked to a $4 billion deal to deliver six new cruise ships for the Miami-based cruise company. Fincantieri is already building the new Prima-Class of vessels, of which NCLH the company ordered six ships.
Fincantieri Lands Another Big Contract
Together with the Meyer Werft in Germany and Chantiers de l’Atlantique in France, Fincantieri is one of the biggest cruise shipbuilders in the world. The company will be building 29 cruise ships through 2026, with six cruise ships up for delivery this year.
Fincantieri will also be delivering the six cruise ships that Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings currently has on order for its cruise brand Norwegian Cruise Line. The first of these, Norwegian Prima, will be delivered this summer, with the second, Norwegian Viva, on schedule for delivery in 2023.
This month, the longstanding CEO for Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono, met with NCL CEO Frank Del Rio. According to a report by Reuters, Del Rio and Bono agreed on the terms for a further six cruise ships, with the deal being worth four billion dollars.
The deal would be the last for Giuseppe Bono, who announced that he would be leaving Fincantieri this month. Although Bono has seen his contract renewed without issue in the previous twenty years, his mandate is not being restored by the Italian government due to his age.
Italian state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), which owns 71.3% of the group, proposed Pierroberto Folgiero as the new CEO. Folgiero is currently CEO of the Italian engineering group Maire Tecnimont.
Will NCLH Move to New Technologies?
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is the only cruise company out of Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean, MSC Cruises, and NCLH, which does not operate or have LNG-powered cruise ships on order.
The propulsion system is seen by many as the way forward for the cruise industry as it moves to its 2050 goals of being carbon neutral.
It seems more than likely that Frank Del Rio and NCLH have now decided to implement the systems onboard the six ships on the new ship order. Whether this is the case remains to be seen and will likely be announced soon, possibly during a conference call Norwegian has scheduled for May 10.
The six additional cruise ships for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings would bring the total number of vessels on order to 15 between three of its cruise brands, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas.
Read Also: Norwegian Cruise Line Releases Business Update
While Fincantieri has built only four of NCLH’s 28 operational cruise ships, the company has nine new ships on order for handover this year and each year after that up to 2027.
This includes six ships for Norwegian Cruise Line, two for Oceania Cruises, and one for its ultra-luxury cruise line Regent Seven Seas.
