Lloyd Werft gets Genting cruise work after all

Both LWB and MV Werften (MVW) are part of the Malaysian Genting Group. LWB Managing Directors Rüdiger Pallentin and Carsten Haake told the respected Nordsee-Zeitung that ships of Genting’s giant 204,000gt Global Class will come to LWB after construction, presumably for outfitting and operational completion, and that other work for LWB is very likely.

In 2016 Genting said the ships would be built in Bremerhaven by LWB. It then created MVW and relocated the work to east Germany, disappointing the Weser. However, Pallentin now believes the decision was “strategically correct” and could not have been otherwise, given the now-evident scale of Genting’s nine-ship, five year, €3.5 billion newbuilding programme.

Just how many Global Class ships will now come to LWB or when was not revealed. The first two of the 340m long and 46m wide ships – the biggest cruise ships ever built in Germany – are currently under build at MVW in Wismar and Rostock for delivery in 2020 and 2021. Genting has said it will build two more every year after that, along with other vessels.

Haake, now also the CFO of MVW responsible for the financing of the Global Class ships, said LWB had signed a contract to use the Westkaje in Bremerhaven when the ships arrive from MVW. The 500m long quayside adjacent to LWB is being rebuilt up to 2019 at a cost of €30 million.

LWB, which regularly services the German research ship Polarstern, also said it has hopes of winning the contract, expected this year, to build its successor Polarstern 2. The yard is already building a 140m mega yacht and will upgrade the 68,000gt cruise ship Crystal Serenity in October – the second for a Genting subsidiary.