Genting deal creates German yard giant

It unites four of Germany’s biggest shipyards – Nordic’s three facilities in Wismar, Stralsund and Warnemünde and Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven, which Genting acquired in January – within a new Lloyd Werft Group. It also creates Germany’s second giant cruise ship builder after Meyer Werft and one of the four biggest such groups in the world.

Lloyd Werft Managing Director Rüdiger Pallentin said Genting “will sign a significant new multi-ship order” with the group on May 10th . It will cover the newbuilding of at least ten new cruise ships over the next decade and Pallentin has already told The Motorship that construction will be evenly shared among all four group yards. “These orders will help support the German and European shipbuilding sector and employment during the current shipbuilding downturn”, he added.

Genting has said it plans to grow group output to about three newbuildings a year and create a fleet of high-quality cruise ships for its three cruise shipping brands. The acquisition of the four German yards, it said, will give it the core expertise, manpower, fabrication capacity and covered drydocks to do all of that in-house optimising individual yard strengths in design, fabrication, outfitting and final assembly.

Wismar has a 340m x 67m drydock, Warnemünde one measuring 320m x 54m wide and both are capable of building cruise ships of 200,000gt. Stralsund has covered shipbuilding halls and a ship lift to launch completed cruise ships or megayachts of up to 270m long or about 50,000gt.

Genting revealed it will also invest about €100 million in thin steel fabrication facilities, a cabin module factory and other improvements and will then be able to build two mega cruise ships and a mid-size cruise ship or megayacht each year by the next decade.