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Unique Cruise Solutions The news you need to know |
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Cruise News for the Corporate Travel Professional |
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Yard that built world's largest cruise ship shutting down due to lack of new orders |
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The Finnish shipyard that has built some of the modern era's most
famous cruise ships, including Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, is preparing
to shut down this week due to a lack of new orders, according to a local news
outlet. Finland's Helsingin Sanomat today reports the completion of Royal Caribbean's new Allure of the Seas this week will leave the STX Europe shipyard in Turku, Finland almost completely silent for the first time in years. Royal Caribbean is scheduled to take delivery of the 5,400-passenger Allure of the Seas on Thursday. The 225,282-ton vessel and its sister, the 11-month-old Oasis of the Seas (also constructed in Turku), are the two biggest cruise ships ever built. While STX Europe's Turku yard recently received an order for a ship from Europe's Viking Line, it came too late to keep the yard running through the winter and spring. The earliest work would start on the new vessel is next summer, Helsingin Sanomat says. The new order also is too small to bring the shipyard back to peak employment. At its height, when both Oasis and Allure were under construction, the STX yard in Turku employed more than 5,500 people within its gates, the news outlet says. As of last month, the number was down to around 1,000 employees, and as of this week nearly half of those already were gone. There are just a handful of shipyards around the globe that are capable of building large cruise ships, and they've been hit hard by the economic downturn of the past few years as the world's major cruise lines cut back on capital spending and focus on cutting debt. For the first time in years, Royal Caribbean does not have another ship on order to come after Allure of the Seas. Neither does Holland America, which unveiled its last new ship in July. Two other big lines, Norwegian Cruise Line and Princess Cruises, have only recently begun to order again after a multi-year hiatus. |
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Worldwide Travel & Cruise Assoc., Inc. 150 S. University Dr. Ste E, Plantation, FL 33324 - USA Tel: +1 954 452 8800 Fax: +1 954 252 3945 EMail: sales@cruiseco.com |
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