Santa brings newbuilding orders to STX Europe

STX Europe must have been nice, not naughty, this year. It greets the holiday season with announcements of significant new shipbuilding orders for both STX Finland Oy and STX France. At STX Finland, the elves coming down the chimney are the Finnish Border Guard. At STX France, they come from Viking Ocean Cruises.

STX France SA  is to build two luxury cruise  for Viking Ocean, which is an affiliate of Viking River Cruises.Each will have a length of 230 m and a width of 26.5 m. Each will accommodate 888 passengers in 444 cabins and will have a complement of 444 crew members. The vessels will be delivered in spring 2014 and spring 2015, respectively, and an option for a third ship is being considered.

The vessels will be operated primarily on the Mediterranean and be targeted mainly to Viking’s American, British and Australian customers.

The contract will represent about 2.5 million man-hours work for STX France’s St. Nazaire shipyard . Construction is expected to start in mid-September 2012 for the first vessel and in mid-September 2013 for the second vessel. The contract is subject to financing.

Viking River Cruise currently operates a fleet of 23 river vessels, and has 8 river cruise vessels under construction. River cruising is destination oriented and the two ocean going vessels will similarly be designed with destination cruising in mind.

“We are proud to have been selected by Viking to build their new series of ships and delighted to contribute to their expansion into a new market” says Jacques Hardelay, General Manager of STX France.

OFFSHORE PATROL VESSEL

The order for STX Finland is for a next generation offshore patrol vessel. The vessel will be built at the STX Rauma ship­yard and delivered to the customer in November 2013. The highly advanced vessel will be 96 m long and 17 m wide and will be capable of serving a large variety of functions. Construc­tion of the vessel will bring over 400 man-years of labor to STX Rauma shipyard and its supplier network. The domestic content of the project is estimated to be 90 percent.

The main duty of the offshore patrol vessel is to operate in open sea patrol. In addition to ensuring border safety and serving defense purposes, the vessel will be used for other functions such as preven­tion of environmental damage, search and rescue, and different underwater assignments.

The vessel will use the latest technologies and environmentally friendly innovations. It is to be equipped with machinery using liquefied natural gas (LNG) and marine diesel as fuel. The vessel is capable of operating in Baltic Sea ice conditions. The requirements of energy efficiency and safe operation of the vessel in different acci­dent situations have been taken extensively into account in the design of this environmentally friendly ves­sel. 

“The building of this ship offers us excellent opportunities for implementation and further development of environmentally friendly technolo­gies,” says Timo Suistio, EVP & COO of STX Finland Oy and Director of STX Rauma Shipyard. “Ships built for the Finnish Border Guard and Navy are an important part of STX Finland’s continuous develop­ment and introduction of new technologies.”

December 21, 2011