‘Breakthrough’: Chinese shipyard set to take lucrative orders from Nordic cruise operator
Chinese shipyard Waigaoqiao signs MOU with Nordic cruise operator, marking another advance for the rising shipbuilding powerhouse, analysts say
Shanghai Waigaoqiao, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), has secured potential orders from a Nordic cruise operator, marking the entry of Chinese shipyards into the lucrative cruise ship construction sector amid the dominance of European firms.
The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by Shanghai Waigaoqiao and Nor Cruises from Norway on Wednesday at SMM Hamburg, a trade fair on shipbuilding, machinery and marine technology in Germany. The deal involved two 84,000-tonne midsized cruise vessels with an option for three more, according to Waigaoqiao.
The MOU would pave the way for the first batch of such foreign contracts for Waigaoqiao, and, broadly, for China’s shipbuilding industry, as it attempts to scale the value chain and enter the technology and capital-intensive cruise ship market.
While Chinese shipyards have dominated global cargo and container ship segments, with strong order books for LNG vessels, they have not yet broken into cruise ship building, a market cornered by European firms.