Carnival orders two new class cruise ships

OCTOBER 27, 2012—Carnival Corporation & plc recently reached a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to build two new classes of ships, one for its Holland America Line brand and the other for Carnival Cruise Line brand. The MOA calls for the construction of two new cruise ships, one a 99,000-ton ship for its Holland America Line brand and the other, a 135,000-ton vessel for its Carnival Cruise Lines brand.  

The 2,660-passenger ship for Holland America Line (HAL) is scheduled for delivery in the fall of 2015 and the 4,000-passenger ship for Carnival Cruise Lines is set for delivery in the winter of 2016.

The total cost for the two vessels combined, which includes the U.S. dollar denominated contract price and all owner’s costs, will be about $195,000 per lower berth. The MOA is subject to customary closing conditions, including execution of shipbuilding contracts and financing. 

The new class of HAL ship will enter service five years after the last Holland America ship, the ms Nieuw Amsterdam, delivered in 2010.

The Carnival Cruise Lines vessel, also a new class of ship, will be launched four years after the introduction of Carnival Breeze (shown above), which debuted earlier this spring.

Fincantieri built both the Carnival Breeze and the Nieuw Amsterdam.

Carnival chairman and CEO Micky Arison says the order “continues the company’s strategy of introducing two to three ships per year across the corporation’s 10 brands. We have strategically timed the introduction of these new ships to allow ample time for those brands to further grow their passenger base and absorb the new capacity while minimizing revenue yield dilution in the remainder of their existing fleets.”

Including the newbuilds announced today, Carnival Corporation & plc currently has nine new ships scheduled for delivery – two for 2013, two for 2014, three for 2015 and two for 2016. Arison also noted that the addition of new tonnage is expected, to some extent, to replace existing capacity reductions from possible sales of older ships.

The shipbuilding relationship between Carnival and Fincantieri stretches back more than 20 years. Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri, says, “These additional orders bring the total number of ships we have built for Carnival Corporation & plc to 61 and confirm Fincantieri’s world leadership in the cruise ship sector even at a time of slowing demand.”  Bono added, “We view these orders as a very positive development for the Italian economy and the global cruise industry.”