Costa prepares a 170,000 tonnage ship

Venice - Fincantieri is ready to build another ship for Costa Cruises. The news had been anticipated months ago by MediTelegraph, but only yesterday the details of the operation were revealed, during the presentation of the Costa Diadema at Marghera. First of all, the new unit will be the biggest ever commissioned by the Italian brand linked to the Carnival group and will have a gross tonnage of approximately 170,000 tons, much bigger than Diadema’s 132,000 tons. It is expected to be delivered in 2019. The order will be assigned to the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, the only one able to build a ship of these dimensions. The order has not been officially confirmed yet, but the announcement is expected by the end of the year. On the other hand, Michael Thamm, CEO of Costa Cruises, said yesterday that “there is always a new ship in the works for the Costa brand,” and that “it depends on the spirit and energy that Fincantieri will put into it”. Furthermore, the Fincantieri production times coincide with the new order by Costa: the Gorizia shipyard will, in fact, build two cruise ships for MSC, scheduled for delivery in 2017 for the first unit and 2018 for the second.

But there is more news for the giant led by Giuseppe Bono. There are persistent rumours that Fincantieri is very close to the acquisition of the naval shipyards of Saint-Nazaire, which are currently owned by the South Korean company STX Offshore & Shipbuilding. A well justified interest, as the French shipyard, which has been on the market for some time, is a cutting edge facility where €70 million was recently invested. It is the only one in Europe equipped with a gantry crane with a lifting capacity of 1,400 tons, for building the largest cruise ships in the world. If Fincantieri effectively gets control of Saint-Nazaire, it would become the first European group to become an undisputed leader of the cruise ship building sector. In this case, if both parties can agree on the sale price, the only obstacle could be the binding opinion of the European Union Antitrust Authority. Scheduled orders at the shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, which now has 2,500 employees, remain those made official in recent months by Royal Caribbean with the fourth Oasis which will be delivered in 2018, while the third, which is currently under construction, will be completed in 2016.

In addition, there is the mega-order announced in March by MSC for the construction of two new cruise ships (plus an option for an additional two): the total value is €2.8 billion. Furthermore, it is evident that there will be some movement on the investment front. As a matter of fact, yesterday Fincantieri’s CEO stated clearly that the company is ready for new challenges highlighting that “we need to meet the customer’s requests in terms of price and quality. I think that we are the best at this,” added Bono. During the presentation ceremony of the Diadema the head of the Italian shipbuilding firm did not miss the opportunity to criticise the management of the national productive sector. Bono said “If we are to be competitive, the country’s productive system needs to be competitive as well. It needs to become faster and more efficient so we can continue to be successful”. The CEO of Fincantieri explained “I do not ask for funding, just for a closer collaboration by all to overcome the difficulties that plague Italy all too often.”