The cruise shipping company NYK Cruises Japan (part of NYK LIne) and Meyer Werft signed a contract for the construction of a new cruise ship.
Meyer Werft is the world's first shipyard to have succeeded in doing so, as no company has placed a newbuilding order for a cruise vessel since the beginning of the health crisis. NYK Group is placing its first order in Papenburg, Germany.
This is an important signal for the Papenburg site of Meyer Werft with the world’s biggest covered building dock, even if the newbuild is relatively small at 229 metres (751 feet) in length and 51,950 GT.
NYK Cruises' new ship (NYK Yokohama) is scheduled for delivery in 2025.
Meyer Werft is due to install LNG propulsion. The modern and most environmentally friendly cruise ship technology was successfully used for the first time by the company back in 2018 as a global innovation for complete ship propulsion.
Meyer Werft is implementing numerous customized solutions for the new order, including hydrodynamics optimized in accordance with the planned routes and onboard facilities adapted to the needs of Japanese guests, as well as, as a result of the COVID pandemic, offering innovations to the contactless controls and air-conditioning systems.
NYK Group, with 37,000+ employees, is one of the world's largest global logistics enterprises with 400 vessels and is primarily active in the bulk, container, and energy transportation, logistics, and RoRo markets.
NYK Cruises, a group company of NYK, operates the luxury ship Asuka 2, which was delivered by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1990 and serves a luxury segment as the largest cruise ship in Japan.
In February, Meyer Werft transferred Royal Caribbean's Odyssey of the Seas via the Ems to the North Sea.
Despite the Coronavirus crisis, 8 ships have been delivered from MEYER Group's shipyards in Rostock, Papenburg, and Turku (Finland) in the past 12 months.