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The new cruise ship will be a sister ship of "MSC Fantasia" and "MSC Splendida", which were delivered from STX France's St. Nazaire shipyard in December 2008 and July 2009, respectively. The new vessel will be the 9th cruise ship built in St. Nazaire for MSC Cruises.
The new cruise ship will have a length of 330 meters and a size of about 140.000 GT. The vessel will have 1,751 cabins, which is 100 more cabins than her two sister vessels. The vessel will have an ultra-modern design with multiple dining and entertainment options - with the highest environmental standards.
"This letter of intent demonstrates the excellent and exceptional collaboration between teams of STX at St. Nazaire and those of MSC Cruises. We look forward to implementing our expertise to again fulfil the promise of exceptional quality, deliverability, and design for MSC Cruises" says Mr. Jacques Hardelay, President of STX France SA.
The new order will generate about 5,000,000 hours of work for the industrial area of St. Nazaire - mostly at STX France SA and its sub-suppliers and partners. For the shipyard, it represents two years of work for 1,000 of 2,300 employees
Tony
"Mr Vago said that MSC had originally planned to build two more panamax ships of the MSC Musica-class, sisterships of MSC Magnifica, and was negotiating with STX France with that intention. "But we decided that the post-panamax vessels were successful, so we changed the negotiation to build a larger vessel."He confirmed that the letter of intent would be for a single vessel, without any further options, but he did not rule out further orders in future.MSC has also taken advantage of the changed financial and market conditions to negotiate a lower price for the vessel, compared with the earlier pair of MSC Fantasia-class ships. Mr Vago would not confirm the contract price for the new vessel, with the final price still subject to last-minute negotiations."The shipyard will benefit from lower prices for materials," he said.While it will be of the same basic design and dimensions as MSC Fantasia and MSC Splendida, delivered in 2008 and 2009 respectively, the new ship will include some new features "building on MSC's trademark interior design with a high ratio of public spaces", Mr Vago said."
Pam
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