First steel has been cut at the Meyewr Turku shipyard for Costa Toscana, the second LNG powered cruise ship for Costa Crociere, which is part of the Carnival Corporation & plc group.

The brand new plasma cutter line was used for the first time in a production start ceremony, the shipbuilder pointedout in a statement.

Costa Toscana would be the first ship benefitting fully from the new panel line of Meyer Turku. The panel line is just one of the major over €100 million investments inside the steel halls, the whole shipyard going through an investment program of €200 million. “Modern shipyard for modern ships”, stated CEO of Meyer Turku Jan Meyer.

Costa Smeralda, the first ship of the type to be built for Costa Crociere, is due for delivery in October and Costa Toscana in 2021. With gross tonnage of over 180,000 and more than 2600 staterooms on each, the Costa Smeralda and Costa Toscana are part of the Costa Group’s fleet expansion plan, with seven new ships scheduled to enter service by 2023.

The same design platform will be shared between AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line, all parts of the Carnival group,  and the ships of the class are to be built at the Meyer shipyards at Papenburg in Germany and Turku in Finland.

AIDAnova, the first unit of the class, was delivered to AIDA Cruises in Rostock from Papenburg at the end of last yrar.