THE halls at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone yard near Trieste in northern Italy are surprisingly quiet, as the vast blocks that will one day be turned into floating cities are welded together. On June 22nd Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of MSC Cruises, added to their number when he flipped a switch to begin cutting steel plates for the first of the two new Seaside ships MSC has commissioned. The order is part of a €5.1 billion ($5.7 billion) investment in new ships by the Swiss-based firm, the world’s fourth-largest cruise operator.
Fincantieri has 14 ships in design or construction, and Virgin Cruises, a newcomer, wants it to make another three. In 2009-10 Fincantieri’s yards were operating at 50% of capacity. This year the figure will be 70-75%, and in 2016-17 over 90%, says Giuseppi Bono, its chief executive.
Things are humming at Europe’s other main builders too. On June 15th Carnival Corporation, the largest cruise operator, revealed details of an agreement to buy four whoppers from Meyer Werft in Germany and Meyer Turku in Finland. On June 19th the world’s biggest cruise...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1Jlss8u
No comments:
Post a Comment