Italian shipyard Fincantieri has announced the signing of an agreement with Carnival Cruise Linesand China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) to create a joint venture and build cruise ships specially designed for the Chinese market.
Under the agreement, the three companies will conduct a study to assess the potential for building cruise ships exclusively for the Chinese market.
China is currently one of the fastest-growing cruise markets, and experts believe it could become the world's leading cruise market. These projections are prompting major cruise operators to relocate their ships there.
“Building on our groundbreaking memorandum of understanding signed with CSSC last month, this new agreement with Fincantieri gives us the opportunity to work with our long-time partner to further explore the possibilities of creating a joint venture that could forever change the shipbuilding landscape in China,” said Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation.
For his part, Fincantieri CEO Giuseppe Bono stated that “this agreement with Carnival and CSSC testifies to our determination to pursue a strategy that increasingly establishes Fincantieri as a global player and benchmark in the sector, with a strong presence in all markets that can guarantee the future of our business.”.
Bono also commented that “new international scenarios are emerging, and with them come new challenges, in addition to those already existing, and we are delighted to contribute alongside Carnival to developing cruise ship building capacity in China for the Chinese market. For this reason, our commitment must become ever stronger so that we can seize these opportunities and continue to be an example of Italian style to the world.”.
