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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has reportedly postponed plans to re-enter into cruiseship construction as early as 2012 after Princess Cruises are said to have scrapped talks on newbuildings. The Lloyds List cited Nikkei Daily, which reported that the yard was believed to have been in the final stages of negotiations with Carnival Corp & PLC for two large 1,000-passenger-plus vessels priced in the region of JPY 100bn ($845m) each.
Mitsubishi pulled out of the cruise business in 2002 after a fire broke out during the construction of the 115,000 gross ton Diamond Princess that was delivered in 2004. It signalled it was back in the cruise business last year, due to a sharp rise in demand mainly in the US and Europe, Lloyds List said.
The first ship was to have been delivered in the spring of 2013 and the other a year later.The order had been expected to be finalised by year-end at the earliest. Mitsubishi was worried that the rising yen would hit profitability on cruiseship building, the report said.
The two ships were reportedly planned to exceed the 115,000 gross ton size of the Diamon Princess and Sapphire Princess that Mitsubishi built for Princess earloer in the millennium.
From Cruise business.
No surprise there then. Would love to have seen the design though.
Realistically, Princess are being sensible. Now is not the time to be embarking on significant investment. The global sllowdown has meant that nearly all significant cruise markets are likely to be affected so there will be little availability to redeploy capacity.
There were reports that Europe was over-saturated with capacity last summer and that was before the worst of the crisis. Likewise Princess RCCL, HAL and Celebrity have had to offer deep discounts on their ships sailing out of Sydney for the southern summer. As the effects ripple through the economy, there will be carnage on the milk-run cruises in the Caribeean and the Mexican Riviera.
Carnival are battening down the hatches. They know it is a buyers' market so they will be able to deal with a number of shipyards and drive great prices when they come back for new orders in a year or so.
In some respects, RCI are probably wishing they could also defer some orders but they are already committed to take the 2 Oasis class and 4 more Solstice class so they will be hoping (praying) for a short sharp downturn rather than a protracted recession.
Brad
The Caribbean market will get soft again, but it remains linchpin to the rest of the market, in terms of marketing the brand, and opening people to using it in other regions. It is clear from the news that RCI is shifting more ships to Europe next year, they are already thinking the Caribbean needs fewer ships to shore-up prices and cut losses.
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