A big (cruise) fish in a small pond

by Marek Błuś If 2020-end left Baltic shipyards with any dreams of blossoming, the beginning of this century’s third decade buried all hope of turning the region into a multi-yard cruise ship construction hub. Whereas the 2021 production measured in gross tonnage (GT) grew by about 10%, two other crucial figures did not change much: handed over vessels and shipyards counting new deliveries – 24 and 11, respectively (read: stagnation). As usual, some names disappeared from the shipbuilding list: Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG), Pella and Yantar, while others joined the rooster: Admiralty and Safe (both back after four years of absence) as well as MV Werften, which was our greatest hope but proved to be nothing more than a flash in the pan.

Baltic

Tab. 1. Vessels GT 100 and above built by Baltic shipyards in 2021 – in gross tonnage order

Name Flag GT Shipyard Type

Costa Toscana Italy 186,364 Meyer Turku Pax (cruise) Sibir Russia 28,494 Baltic Icebreaker Aurora Botnia Finland 24,036 RMC Ro-pax Crystal Endeavour1 SH Minerva Bahamas Malta 20,449 10,617 MV Werften Helsinki Pax (cruise) Salish Heron Pola Gali Norvezhskoye More Coey Viking Cooper Viking Ruth Canada 8,728 Remontowa Ferry2

Russia 6,305 Nevsky General cargo 5,098 Vyborg Fishing

Norway 4,799 Remontowa PSV

Denmark

Börkur Vilhelm Thorsteinnsson Havskjer Silver Arctic Pavel Leonov Piltun Fodnes Astrid-Marie Antarctic Vingaskär Pomor North Sea Slattenberg

Total

Iceland 4,319 Karstensen Fishing

Norway

Russia 3,409 3,162 Remontowa General cargo

3,061

3,030 Nevsky

Pax/general cargo Rescue Norway 2,596 Remontowa Ferry2 Sweden 1,622 Ireland 1,398 Sweden 499 Karstensen Fishing

Russia 498 Onego Tug Denmark 450 Karstensen Norway 417 Safe Fishing

332,428

1 New name: Silver Endeavour 2 Double-ended ro-pax

For the second time in a row – and the third time in Baltic shipbuilding history – a single delivery accounted for over half (56%) of the annual production. We are witnessing the birth of a new custom: the same phenomenon occurred in 2022 and is expected to hold in the coming years. The Finnish subsidiary of the German Meyer Werft advances by leaps and bounds – from GT 100k in 2019 to over GT 180k last year, dominating the regional output with one hand tied behind its back. The yard’s position will only solidify in the near future: Royal Caribbean International’s (RCI) order of the Icon of the Seas will get Turku’s production over GT 200k in 2023, up to more than GT 300k in 2024 thanks to two deliveries for RCI and TUI. Turku’s Costa Toscana was also the biggest ship built in Europe last year, ahead of another of Meyer’s GT 180k+ ‘sailing hotels,’ AidaCosma.

And here is where the good news from the cruise sector ends. MV Werften delivered its first – and last – GT 20k cruiser (called a “megayacht”), leaving the bankruptcy trustee with a single unfinished hull of GT 200k (the ship will be completed for Disney Cruise Line, probably in 2025). Although Helsinki Shipyard (former Arctech) wrapped up two expedition cruisers year after year, the company found itself in trouble following contract cancellation for a third and final cruiser in the series, and, additionally, because of the export licence withdrawal for an icebreaker ordered by the Russian company Norilsk Nickel.

The pure freight sector reached its historical bottom in 2021 by delivering two small general cargo ships constituting 2.8% (GT 9.5k) of the whole Baltic output. If the delivery of Tennor Ocean by FSG is postponed – a round zero will be floated out in 2022. FSG, the leading European maker of ro-ro ships, disappeared from the 2021 delivery list due to its insolvency and restructuring.

On the other hand, there is nothing fishy about the part of the shipbuilding industry that offers solid hope, namely fishing. The sector is dominated by a single builder: Karstensen. Among the 24 deliveries in 2021, ten were fishing vessels, with Karstensen putting together eight. The company from Skagen has 16 ships in its order book. The yard’s ‘hull factory’ (Karstensen Poland) will move in 2023 from Gdynia, located there since 2018, to the historic site of the former Stocznia Gdańska (lately Nauta) – to the area used in the 19th century by Schichau-Werke from Elbląg to erect its second plant.

Tab. 2. Vessels GT 100 and above built by Baltic shipyards in 2022 – in gross tonnage order (provisional)

Name Flag GT Shipyard Type

Carnival Celebration Panama 183,521 Meyer Turku Pax (cruise) MyStar1 Estonia 50,629 RMC Ro-pax Tennor Ocean1 Malta 32,770 FSG Ro-ro Ural1 Russia 28,476 Baltic Icebreaker SH Vega Panama 10,617 Helsinki2 Pax (cruise) Severniy Polus Russia 9,843 Admiralty Research Kapitan Vdovichenko 9,055 Astrid Artemis Denmark 4,697 UK 3,215 Karstensen Fishing

Altera Myggenes Monsun Strażak-28

Total

Finland 1,399 CRIST Ferry Denmark 600 Norway 498 Karstensen Fishing

Poland 368 Remontowa Firefighting

335,688

1 Delivery expected in December 2022 2 Former Arctech Photo: Wasaline

Photo: Swan Hellenic

Tables 1 and 5 can raise doubts because of two seemingly lacking deliveries – the Russian sister ro-paxes Marshal Rokossovky (GT 20,661) and General Chernyakhovsky (GT 20,724). Nevsky Shipyard was indeed their contracting firm. Still, both were built by the Turkish Kuzey Star and travelled to St. Petersburg without tug assistance. It means that the two were outfitted and equipped with all the viable systems in the South. At their homeport, a brass plate with the shipyard’s name should only be attached to the front of the bridge, plus some minor jobs carried out. As such, our lists assign the ships to the yard that completed the drive and other systems required by regulations for safe, independent navigation.

Europe

Cruise ships, totting up to 65% of the GT delivered from the Baltic in 2021, were even more important for Europe’s shipbuilding: 17 vessels in total, +23% in GT to 70% of the continent’s output (vs 13 cruisers and 68% of market share in 2020). In Italy, cruisers constituted 93% (!) of all GT, Germany – 99% (!!), France – 97% (!!!), Finland – 89%, and Norway – a “mere” 51%. Production was concentrated in two industrial groups: Fincantieri delivered GT 544k from its Italian and Norwegian (the Vard brand) yards, and Meyer made GT 538k from its German and Finnish plants.

Italian production was complemented, so to say, by the ro-pax GNV Bridge (GT 32,581) from Visentini Shipyard. Although a domestic service ferry, it would rank as Europe’s 10th biggest in 2021. Other notable mentions include three non-cargo carrying vessels: the cable-layer Leonardo da Vinci (GT 27,937) from Vard, the polar icebreaking research and supply ship Nuyina (GT 22,867) built by the Dutch conglomerate Damen for Australia, and the mining vessel Benguela Gem (GT 20,503) – also from Damen but for the diamond industry in Namibia.

Even as European deliveries grew by 19% in 2021, the output was still below the two million GT mark, accounting for some 3% of global completions. Where are deglobalisation and homeshoring when Europe’s shipbuilding industry needs them?

Tab. 3. European shipbuilding countries’ performance in 2020-2021 (thousand gross tonnage)1

No Country 2021 2020 yoy 2021 order book2

1 Italy 501 518 -3.3% 3,100 2 Germany 374 309 +21.0% 1,623 3 Finland 221 182 +21.4% 1,100 4 France 188 138 +36.2% 1,060 5 Norway 175 102 +71.6% 70 6 Netherlands 125 121 +3.3% 200 7 Russia3 107 131 -18.3% 150 8 Spain 71 46 +54.3% 300 9 Romania 44 – – 200 10 Poland 24 13 +84.6% 160 11 Croatia 23 15 +53.3% 200 12 Denmark 21 9.0 +133% 32 13 UK 18 7.0 +157% 15 14 Portugal 10 10 +/-0% 50 15 Greece 4.0 1.0 +300% 4.0 16 Bulgaria – 3.0 -100% 6.0

Total 1,906 1,605 +18.8% 8,270

1 Statistic based on the location of the contracting/outfitting shipyards 2 At the end of the year 3 Shipyards in the European part of the country only Sources for Tabs. 3 and 5: national and associations’ statistics corrected by own research

Photo: BCFerries

Tab. 4. Cruise vessels built by European shipyards in 2021 – in gross tonnage order

Name GT Shipyard Owner/operator

Costa Toscana 186,364 Meyer Turku Costa Crociere AidaCosma 183,774 Meyer Werft Aida Cruises MSC Virtuosa 181,541 Chantiers de l’Atlantique MSC Cruises MSC Seashore 170,412 Fincantieri Odyssey of the Seas 167,704 Meyer Werft Royal Caribbean Valiant Lady 108,192 Virgin Voyages Rotterdam Viking Venus 99,935 47,842 Fincantieri HAL Viking Ocean

Silver Dawn 40,855 Silversea

Le Commandant Charcot 31,283 Vard

Ponant Viking Octantis 30,114 Viking Ocean Crystal Endeavour 20,044 MV Werften Silversea Hanseatic Spirit 15,651 Vard TUI Cruises Ultramarine 13,827 Brodosplit V Ships Leisure National Geographic Resolution 12,786 Ulstein Lindblad Expeditions SH Minerva 10,617 Helsinki1 GTLK Europe Golden Horizon 8,784 Brodosplit Brodosplit-Plovidba

Total 1,330,130

1 Former Arctech Tab. 5. Top 10 shipbuilding countries in the world in 2019-2020 (million gross tonnage)

No Country 2021 2020 yoy 2021 order book1

1 China 26.91 23.25 +15.7% 77.00 2 South Korea 19.70 18.48 +6.6% 57.00 3 Japan 10.70 12.94 -17.3% 19.50 4 Philippines 0.63 0.61 +3.3% 1.64 5 Italy 0.50 0.52 -3.8% 3.10 6 Germany 0.37 0.31 +19.4% 1.62 7 Vietnam 0.37 0.58 -36.2% 0.97 8 Finland 0.22 0.18 +22.2% 1.10 9 Taiwan 0.20 0.32 -37.5% 0.22 10 France 0.19 0.14 +35.7% 1.06

Total Top 10 59.79 57.33 +4.3% 163.21 Total world 60.60 57.80 +4.8% 172.37

1 At the end of the year

Photo: Fjord Shipping

Photo: Karstensen

Photo: Fiskebåt