Genting Hong Kong revealed it is redeploying an older cruise vessel to one of its own shipyards to provide staff accommodations during the building of its next-generation ships. The 1988-built SuperStar Libra, which is owned and operated by the Star Cruises brand of Genting, will be moored at company's MV Werften yard in Wismar Germany from the beginning of August 2018.
Earlier this year, MV Werften's Warnemunde and Wismar sites started work on the new 5,000-passenger Global Class ships of Genting, with the first due to be delivered in 2020 and the second in 2021. Genting said in a statement that the booming business of MV Werften meant that its payroll was expanding dramatically. At one of the yard's 3 sites in Wismar, the number of employees would rise to 1,500 plus an equivalent number of contractors.
The 700 cabins aboard SuperStar Libra will provide enough capacity for all. The commute will be fast, as the ship will be docked at the own quay of the facility. The yard is building more accommodations at Wismar's Old Wooden Port, including units built by Fertigmodule GmbH, its own cabin module division.
In 2016, Genting formed MV Werften after acquiring Nordic Yards' facilities in Stralsund, Rostock-Warnemunde and Wismar. The Baltic Sea shipyards gave Genting the unique capacity to construct its own vessels, and the acquisition is paying off: recently, MV Werften delivered 4 luxury ships to Genting's Crystal River Cruises over an 8-month span. Genting is also the owner of Bremerhaven-based Lloyd Werft, focused on superyacht construction and cruise ship repairs.