Surprise new order bucks up troubled Meyer

Meyer said the 228.86m x 29.8m, 51,950gt , LNG propelled newbuild had been booked by Japan’s NYK. It was described as “a small ship for Japan – but a great signal for shipbuilding in Papenburg!” – a reference to Meyer’s base in northern Germany.

A clearly delighted MD Jan Meyer said it was the first time that NYK had ordered a ship from Meyer as part of a joint venture. The yard was also “the first shipyard in the world to win an order for a cruise ship newbuilding since the start of the current Covid pandemic”.

Another significant first, he said, was that this was the first order in the 226 year old history of the yard, in which all the contract documentation and plans had been drawn up and negotiated within the framework of video conferencing. “The effort was worth it”, Jan Meyer declared.

Jan Meyer gave no specific details of the new ship’s planned LNG drive but noted that his yard was the first to introduce LNG for complete ship propulsion in 2018. He revealed it would also implement many tailor-made solutions under the new contract.

These included unspecified optimized hydrodynamics on planned routes, as well as on-board facilities which could be adapted to the needs of Japanese passengers and also said that, because of the pandemic, it would offer innovations in air conditioning systems and contactless controls.

Meyer put the successful contract down to offering the best ideas, quality and “a very challenging” but undisclosed price in a difficult global market situation and against worldwide competition.

For delivery in 2025, the new ship will be for a maximum 744 passengers and a crew of 470. It will be a prototype without options for further sister ships, Meyer said, but had still come at just the right time. It meant that in 2025 the yard with an annual construction capacity of 420,000gt, will have now at least two ships of total 182,000gt under construction rather than just one.

Between now and 2025 however, “utilisation still remains at a lower level”, the yard said. Despite Covid however, Meyer has still delivered eight ships from its Papenburg, Rostock and Turku yards in the past 12 months.