Fincantieri Sets Up Chinese JV
Fincantieri and China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), China’s largest shipbuilding conglomerate, have signed an agreement for a joint venture aimed at developing and supporting the growth of the Chinese cruise industry.
The agreement, which follows the ones signed with CSSC and Carnival Corporation in November 2014, provides that the joint venture will design and sell cruise ships exclusively intended and specifically customized for the Chinese and Asian market.
The signing took place on Monday in Shanghai between the CEO of Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono, the President of CSSC, Wu Qiang, and the Chairman of CSSC Cruise Technology Development and of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding facility (SWS), Wang Qi.
These vessels will be built at one of CSSC’s shipyards, the SWS facility, on the basis of a technological platform licensed to the joint venture and to the SWS shipyard by Fincantieri.
The agreement envisages that Fincantieri will also provide specialized consultancy services and supply certain key components of the vessels to the joint venture and to SWS.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Transport (MOT) the cruise market in China expanded significantly in the last years, reaching one million passengers in 2015. An estimated 4.5 million passengers will be reached by 2020, projecting China to become the world’s second largest cruise market after the U.S. By 2030, China will have an estimated 8-10 million passengers with double-digit growth per year, potentially making it the world’s largest market.
This new agreement places Fincantieri at the center of a project without equal in the world, said CEO Giuseppe Bono. “We are equipped to face the new international scenarios, and we are selected today as a shipbuilding partner for the development of the cruise sector of a country which looks at this industry with great determination. The presence of our main customer Carnival, which will purchase the vessels covered by the agreement, is also of fundamental importance for the project’s success.”
Fincantieri’s Italian shipyards have work guaranteed on average for the next ten years and the new agreement may lead to additional benefits related to top level ship components and engineering.