European shipyard dominance and the move towards large cruise liners are major themes in cruise ship newbuilding, says Maritime Strategies International’s Niklas Carlen
After almost halving from 9.5M gt at the end of 2019 to 4.8 M gt at the end of 2023, the cruise ship orderbook closed out 2024 at 6.6 M gt, or 67 vessels.
Twenty-five cruise ship orders were placed in 2024, slightly lower than MSI had previously anticipated, as some orders at the LOI stage in Q4 slipped into 2025 before finally being confirmed. Nevertheless, this marks a remarkable turnaround for an industry making up lost ground in the wake of the pandemic.
European shipyards laid claim to the lion’s share of orders placed in 2024, as contracting surged and the focus shifted from smaller luxury and expedition ships towards large cruise liners.
China’s long-anticipated emergence as a builder of cruise ships remains an industry footnote, at least for now. Apart from the series of Infinity-class expedition ships built by CMHI for Sunstone (of which one remains under construction), the only other meaningful venture into the realm of cruise shipbuilding has been that of Shanghai Waigaoqiao (SWS) in partnership with Fincantieri. SWS delivered its first vessel in 2023, based on Fincantieri’s Vista class, with a second vessel due to be delivered in 2026. However, the surge in demand for merchant ships across almost every sector has seen Chinese yards fill their orderbooks for the next 3+ years, temporarily limiting the capacity required to venture further into cruise shipbuilding.
One of the orders that failed to make it across the line in 2024 was Norwegian Cruise Line’s order for four methanol-fuelled cruise ships, each with a nominal capacity of 5,100 lower berths. However, these orders were subsequently confirmed in Q1 2025 with delivery of the first vessel scheduled in 2030 and the last due in 2036. Interestingly, long delivery dates have become a feature of the cruise newbuilding market during 2024-25, with Carnival, Disney, Crystal and Viking all placing orders for vessels with delivery dates stretching into the next decade.
This is symptomatic of the fact that, for the time being at least, European shipbuilders remain the only viable option for cruise lines seeking to build large cruise ships. With those shipbuilders almost exclusively focused on the cruise sector, it has been important for the cruise industry to protect those yards by effectively guaranteeing a future pipeline of vessels for construction.
The chart on this page illustrates the historical deliveries (2016-24) and forward delivery schedule to 2036 for the four major European cruise shipbuilders – Fincantieri, Chantiers de l’Atlantique, Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku. It should be noted, Meyer Werft’s delivery schedule for 2025 includes Disney Adventure, originally ordered by Genting Hong Kong at Genting-controlled MV Werften but subsequently sold unfinished to Disney in 2022 following the bankruptcy of Genting Hong Kong and MV Werften. The vessel is currently being completed by Meyer Werft at MV Werften’s Wismar facility, after which, the Wismar yard will be repositioned away from cruise to focus on naval vessels under new owners Thyssen Krupp.
As the chart illustrates, the combined large cruise ship capacity of the four European shipbuilders is to deliver around 10 ships per year. Although there appear to be gaps in the schedule after 2028, MSI expects those slots to be filled in relatively short order on the back of robust growth in passenger volumes. MSI’s forecast calls for global cruise passenger numbers to expand by approximately 5% per annum to 2029.
