For years, Europe has led the world in cruise ship construction without rival. The main shipyards on the planet are located in Italy, Germany, France and Finland. Meyer Werft, for example, began its activity building small boats at the end of the 18th century and, over time, became a benchmark in the construction of large luxury cruise ships, largely driven by Meyer Turku, one of the companies under your property.
But Europe is no longer alone in this area: China has also started building huge cruise ships.
As stated by the entity that supervises the work of Chinese state companies, the Asian country has just completed the construction of its second cruise ship. This is the “Aida Huacheng”, a colossus of the seas 341 meters long and 141,900 tons. Inside there is 2,144 cabinswhich allows transporting a total of 5,232 tourists. They assure that the 16 decks will offer a variety of facilities for leisure and entertainment, although they have not provided too many details in this regard.
China now also builds cruise ships
They have pointed out that the ship is equipped with two desulfurization towers that are part of a gas purification system. The mission of this is to remove sulfur oxides from the engine exhaust gases.
Despite being a huge cruise ship, construction from dry dock assembly to connection of all systems took less than nine months. Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), says they are now at the level of the main European shipyards. “It marks a firm step by the Chinese naval industry towards mastery of key design and construction technologies,” he stated.
This is “Aida Huacheng”
According to the company, more than 100 new work methods were implemented during the process. One of the most notable, they say, has been to use large assembled sections. They also talk about hybrid laser welding to join plates. All of this promises to significantly improve the quality and efficiency of both section assembly and the rest of the dry dock work.
“Aida Modu”, the first Chinese domestically manufactured cruise ship, was completed in 2023 after 11 months of work. It boasts a length of 323.6 meters, has 2,125 cabins and can accommodate up to 5,246 guests.
The Chinese shipbuilding industry has evolved rapidly over the past decades. In 2008, the first nationally produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker was delivered. And in 2019, the People’s Liberation Army Navy commissioned the first domestically-made aircraft carrier, the CV-17 Shandong. As we can see, it has recently become the fifth country in the world with the capacity to build large cruise ships.
Images | China State Shipbuilding Corporation (1, 2)
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