Carnival Corp & plc, the world's largest cruise shipping group, is close to placing an order for a total of 10 newbuildings, media reports say.

Orders for five vessels would be placed with Fincantieri, the Italian shipbuilder, and also for five units with Meyer Werft, the German shipbuilder that acquired the former STX shipyard in Turku last year, a report on the website of the Il Secolo XIX daily said. The parties had agreed in principle about the orders during the Cruise Shipping Miami convention last week, it said.

The orders should include a new 170,000 gross ton prototype for Costa Crociere, the Carnival group's Italian contemporary market brand, which has for the past decade and a half shared many platforms with Carnival Cruise Lines, the group's US focused contemporary market unit, a report on the meditelegraph.com website said.

The other newbuildings would be shared between the Anglo-American Carnival group's nine other brands and the orderbook would extend to the year 2028, the report continued. The ships would be priced in the region of $700 million to $800 million each. Fincantier's share of the total wpuld be in the region of $4.0 billion, the report continued.