Genting delays Crystal, Dream ships

GENTING Hong Kong has announced significant delivery delays for Crystal Cruises’ upcoming Crystal Endeavor (pictured) and Dream Cruises’ Global Dream, which will now not arrive until “about a year” later than both previously announced.

Both ships are under construction at the MV Werften shipyards in Germany, which are also owned by Genting.

The highly anticipated Crystal Endeavor had been scheduled to debut this year, while the massive 9,500 passenger Global Dream

was due for delivery in 2021.

The delays were unveiled in a financial update on Fri in which the company warned of a US$600 million net loss for the six months to 30 Jun.

Genting cited the suspension of operations across its Crystal Cruises, Dream Cruises and Star Cruises brands, as well as the cessation of shipbuilding activities at MV Werften and “severely restricted operations and revenue generation at its entertainment and leisure businesses” which includes Resorts World Manila.

Genting Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay confirmed the company had undertaken a range of cost reduction, cash conservation and capital raising measures including cutting staff and salaries, suspension of all capital expenditures, seeking additional sources of finance and delaying the newbuild deliveries.

All vessels across the three brands have been laid up apart from Explorer Dream which is operating in Taiwan (CW 30 Jun) and SuperStar Aquarius and Superstar Gemini which have both been leased to the Government of Singapore.

Some shoreside savings were implemented early in the pandemic with the closure of the Australasian Crystal office (CW 09 Apr), which has been consolidated into the local Dream/Star Cruises operation.