Historic vessel, costing estimated $1 billion, will be delivered to HK buyer in 2023

The first cruise liner to be built in the Chinese mainland is expected to be delivered to a Hong Kong-based buyer in 2023, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of the nation’s shipbuilding industry.

It is also expected to boost a plethora of supplier segments as well as domestic tourism, experts said. The vessel will be used in the Chinese market.

The as-yet unnamed ship will be built at Waigaoqiao, Shanghai, by a joint venture between the State-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp and Italy-based Fincantieri SpA, the world’s largest cruise shipbuilding company.

There is no official word on the cost and cost advantages, if any, compared to European shipbuilders that dominate the industry.

But Chen Gang, vice-president of Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, a company controlled by CSSC, said he expects the vessel to cost about $1 billion.

The cruise ship, reportedly 323.6 meters long and 37.2 meters wide, can hold nearly 5,000 passengers in 2,000 cabins.

For perspective, Harmony of the Seas, built by the STX France yard in Saint-Nazaire on the Atlantic coast for US-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, is regarded as the world’s largest cruise ship, according to a London Guardian report. The vessel, which cost close to $1 billion, has 16 decks and can carry 6,360 passengers and 2,100 crew members.

According to Wu Qiang, general manager of CSSC, the China-made vessel will be the first of five to be delivered on a yearly basis from 2023 onward.

Wu Zhenglian, a cruise ship design expert with CSSC’s research institute, said, “The vessel is the outcome of a decade of efforts by the Chinese shipbuilding industry to satisfy the rising demand for waterbased travel among the coun-

try’s humongous and upwardly mobile middle class.”

Some 2.1 million Chinese tourists traveled in cruise liners in 2016, taking the third position in the annual global passenger rankings, according to data from the Cruise Lines International Association.

The rise to the third spot

took over a decade.

China’s cruise economy took off in 2006, posting about 45 percent compound annual growth rate ever since.

Building homegrown cruise ships is part of the natural evolution of the industry, observers said.

Currently, Italy, Germany and France dominate the world’s luxury cruise shipbuilding sector. In all, they make and deliver eight large cruise ships per year, lagging the world’s demand for 13 ships.

This is where CSSC sees future potential.

In October 2015, it signed an agreement with China Investment Corp, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund, and Carnival Corp & Plc, the world’s largest leisure travel company with global operations, to form a joint venture in Hong Kong.

The latter will place orders with the CSSC-Fincantieri joint venture for cruise ships.

In February, Carnival announced the Hong Kong company had signed an agreement to order the first-ever