Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd’s (RCCL) decision to contract a third Icon class ship at Meyer Turku in Finland should lift the combined value of the ships the company will build between the start of this year to the mid-2020s to some $17.4 billion, according to a calculation of CruiseBusiness.com
“As of December 31, 2018, the aggregate cost of our ships on order, not including any ships on order by our Partner Brands (TUI Cruises) and the Silversea Cruises ships that remain contingent upon final documentation and financing, was approximately $11.4 billion,” RCCL said in its 2018 annual report.
Since the new year, the company has ordered a sixth Oasis class ship from Chantiers de l’Atlantique. The price was not disclosed, but the Swedish cruise and ferry industry publication Shippax Info gives $1.40 billion as its price.
RCCL has also ordered a fifth Edge class ship for its Celebrity Cruises brand after the new year. Shippax Info says the fourth ship in the class is priced at $900 million. Chantiers de l’ Atlantique is building also these vessels.
These two ships brings the RCCL group’s total capital commitment to newbuildings to $14.70 billion.
Building of the third Icon class ship is subject to financing and neither the yard nor RCCL have disclosed the price of the planned vessel. However, Shippax Info has cited $1.60 billion as the price for the each of the first two 200,000 gross ton, LNG and hybrid powered ships. This can be used as a guideline for the third ship too. This ship is due for delivery in 2025 if final contract is signed.
The figure is $200 million higher than the price of the sixth Oasis class ship, which will be of roughly 230,000 gross tons. The more complex technology on the Icon ships can, however, make them more expensive than the larger but more conventionally powered Oasis class units.
Assuming that $1.60 billion is correct, then RCCL’s newbuilding commitments would reach $16.3 billion in total. No details have been disclose about the price or e.g. size of the two Evolution class ships that Silversea Cruises will build at Meyer Werft in Germany.
On the assumption that these might be about the same size – about 55,000 gross tons - as the two luxury market ships that Regent Seven Seas Cruises has on order at Fincantieri, then each of them could carry a price tag of about 500 million. A small ship will be built for Silversea at de Hoop shipyard in the Netherlands to operate in the Galapagos archipelago. Its price could be in the region of $100 million.
These three ships would add an estimated $1.1 billion to RCCL’s newbuilding commitments, brining the figure to the region of 17.4 billion. RCCL has a 66.7% stake in the Monaco based Silversea Cruises.
