Stx Europe News

Delivery of the world's largest cruise ship Wonder of the Seas has been delayed due to coronavirus impacts at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. The shipyard delays mean Royal Caribbean's new record-breaking cruise ship will not enter service from Shanghai in spring 2021 as planned, a spokesperson for the cruise line confirmed to MarineLink after the news was announced on Royal Caribbean's Chinese website. A new delivery has not been specified. The 362-meter Wonder of the Seas will be slightly larger than its 228…

Ideol and STX Europe Offshore Energy, the well-known EPCIM supplier of substations to the bottom-fixed offshore wind industry, announce the development of a breakthrough floating substation. This one will be compatible with both bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind farms. Their universal and modular solution is expected to impact the market of offshore substations and aims at being market-ready for France’s upcoming floating commercial tenders. Based on Ideol’s patented and shallow-draft Damping Pool® concept and designed to operate in the world most extreme environments, this universal floating substation is currently being designed and engineered with a target of maximum standardization and modularization that allow cost reduction.

The Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri signed Friday an agreement to buy 50% of the share capital of France's STX Shipyard, for 59.7 million euros. This takeover is part of the agreement in principle reached in September between France and Italy, which put an end to months of tension between the two countries. "The signing takes place after the resolution of the share purchase agreement previously signed between Fincantieri and STX Europe on May 19, 2017 as a consequence of the exercise by the French State of its pre-emption right for the acquisition of the entirety of STX France share capital on July 28, 2017 and follows the signing of the share purchase agreement between the French State and STX Europe," said a statement from the company.

Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri S.p.A. said it has signed a share purchase agreement for the acquisition of 66.66 percent of the share capital of STX France shipyard from its current shareholder STX Europe AS. The agreement entails a purchase price of €79.5 million ($89 million). Fincantieri continues to negotiate with the French State for the finalization of the shareholders’ agreement for STX France in accordance with the Heads of Terms signed on April 12. Based in Saint-Nazaire…

Four parties have expressed interest in buying one or both of South Korea's STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co Ltd and a controlling stake in STX France SA, a spokesman for the Seoul court overseeing STX Offshore's receivership said on Friday. The Seoul Central District Court spokesman declined to comment on the names of the parties. The South Korean court in October decided to allow the two units of the collapsed STX shipbuilding group to be sold either separately or together. Initial bids were due on Friday for all of STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co Ltd and a 66.7 percent stake in STX France SA that is held by STX Europe AS. The four parties that entered non-binding bids in the sale were France's DCNS Group…

To stay above water by restructuring, South Korean Shipbuilder STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. plans to lay off about a third of its workforce and sell a yard in France, says a report in WSJ. The country's fourth largest shipyard filed for receivership in May. The court has been supervising the firm’s rehabilitation since June. STX told a bankruptcy court in Korea that it has hired PricewaterhouseCoopers to help it sell STX France, a profitable yard in France specializing in building cruise ships. STX said it plans to cut its 2,090 staff in Korea by 35% by the end of September. The shipbuilder has been undergoing a court-led restructuring scheme, is revitalizing a plan to sell STX France by hiring a manager for its sale this week after two previous attempts failed, reports Korea Herald.

South Korean shipbuilder STX Offshore & Shipbuilding (STX O&S) has won an order for up to eight LR1 tankers with a total value of $ 375 million. The contract provides for the construction of four oil tankers of 74,000 tons plus the ability to build four additional ships. Under the contract, the ships should be delivered in 2016. The name of the shipowner is not disclosed, but according to the officials the LR1 product carriers will be chartered to Royal Dutch Shell on a long-term basis. The additional specifications of the ships were not mentioned. STX Offshore & Shipbuilding received orders for 21 product tankers since the first half of 2014, out of 36 orders placed on global scale, making it the majority holder of the overall market share in this segment.

The Meyer family, operating the shipbuilding company Meyer Werft in Germany, and the Finnish State acquired Turku shipyard from STX Europe in September 2014. Meyer Werft took up 70 percent of the shares, and the State of Finland purchased 30 percent of the share capital through the Finnish Industry Investment Ltd (FII). As usual for the FII´s investment policy, it exits from its investments. In the case of the Turku shipyard, it was agreed that Meyer had a call option to buy FII’s minority stake in the shipyard. Meyer has now decided to further invest in Turku shipyard using the call option. “At the time of the purchase Meyer was only…

Innovation, superior technology and competitiveness are the characteristics that have brought the Finnish maritime industry world repute. Its well-knit maritime cluster responsible for achieving a high level of production has propelled it into prominence in the global market. Extreme conditions during winter have set technological and quality demands on Finnish shipping which, in turn has contributed towards the emergence of a competitive maritime industry in Finland. The Finnish Maritime and Offshore Cluster (incl. Marine industries, shipping and port operations in private and public sectors) is one of the central industries in the Finnish technology industries.

Arctech Helsinki Shipyard is now 100 percent Russian-owned as United Shipbuilding Corporation bought the remaining half of the company’s shares from STX Finland Oy. Arctech Helsinki Shipyard Inc. was founded in December 2010 as United Shipbuilding Corporation bought the first 50 percent of the shipyard shares from STX Finland, a subsidiary of the Korean-owned STX Europe. The joint venture was established to respond to the need of growing market of Arctic shipbuilding and to unite the Finnish and Russian maritime clusters.

German cruise ship builder strengthens its yards. MEYER WERFT joins forces with the STX Finland shipyard in Turku. Following weeks of negotiations the Finnish Government and MEYER WERFT signed a share purchase agreement with the current owner STX Europe. With its 70% stake MEYER WERFT takes the industrial leadership of the new company. At present some 1,300 employees and a specialized supplier network are involved in the construction of the cruise ship Mein Schiff 4 for the German cruise operator TUI Cruises from Hamburg.

Germany's closely held Meyer Werft and the Finnish government are nearing a deal to buy the Turku shipyard in southwestern Finland from STX Europe , the Finnish economy ministry said on Monday. STX Europe belongs to Korean STX. The Turku shipyard specialises in building cruise ships and has suffered from a lack of orders in recent years. STX said last year it was looking to sell some of its shipyards. Finland's government in 2012 faced heavy criticism for not providing a loan to the shipyard…

MSC Cruises has moved to increase its order of megaships from Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to two ships, with an option for third. At a cost of AUD $3.2 billion, this investment signifies a confidence that the cruise holiday industry will only continue to strengthen. The Italian-Swiss shipping company currently operates 12 cruise liners, running numerous different sea routes simultaneously. The two new ships, currently nicknamed Project Seaside I and Project Seaside II, from Fincantieri are larger in terms of gross tonnage than any of the company's current liners.

MSC Cruises recently added a new state-of-the-art liner, the MSC Preziosa, helping the Italian company, truly a family business, attain the status of third largest cruise line in the world. MSC Preziosa is a Fantasia class cruise ship owned and operated by MSC Cruises. It entered service in March 2013 as an enhanced version of its sister ships, MSC Splendida and MSC Fantasia, and is identical to MSC Divina, which was launched in 2012. Built at the STX shipyard in St. Nazaire, France, MSC Preziosa is the new flagship of MSC Cruises. The new ship gained immediate recognition famous courtesy of its christening by actress Sophia Loren, and was significant as it signified that MSC Cruises is now the third largest cruise line in the world.

On 25 February 2014, approximately nine months after the keel laying of TUI Cruises’ first newbuilding Mein Schiff 3, TUI Cruises and STX Finland celebrated the keel laying of Mein Schiff 4 in the Turku shipyard. Following the old shipbuilding tradition, the lucky coins were placed under the keel block of the ship. In the lucky coin ceremony, held on the bottom of the drydock, the shipowner was represented by Richard J. Vogel, CEO of TUI Cruises, CFO Frank Kuhlmann, Chief Engineer of Mein Schiff 3 Kostas Kallinikos and the designated Captain of Mein Schiff 3 Kjell Holm.

STX Finland has been actively seeking solutions for saving the Finnish shipyard industry. In September 2013, the company launched a major restructuring aimed at safeguarding the operating potential of the company and, by extension, the entire maritime industry in Finland, thus ending the years of uncertainty. As part of the STX Finland Oy restructuring, cooperation negotiations concerning the Rauma and Turku Shipyards have been conducted between the personnel groups and the company management. The negotiations were completed on October 29, 2013.

STX Finland, which has seen a deterioration of its shipbuilding base for many years, today announced its latest plan to stem the flow of red ink: a phase out of the Rauma shipyard. Senior management cited the continued bad global economy in the wake of the economic meltdown of 2008 as the primary source of trouble. "The decisions made now are based on a realistic estimate of the company’s current state and the market outlook,” said Jari Anttila, EVP & Deputy CEO of STX Finland.

Arrangements have been made to ensure that the Turku shipyards of STX Finland will be able to deliver two ships ordered by the German TUI cruise line, Finland’s Ministry of Employment and the Economy said on Friday. The two cruise liners are slated for a 2014-2015 completion date. The parties participating in the agreement are the State of Finland, German shipping company TUI Cruises and the Korean-owned STX Europe. The Finnish government expects to put 31 million euros in subsidies toward construction, and 9.6 million has been used so far. Finnvera, a state-owned financing company, pledged up to 292 million euros for the period that the ships are under construction.

Shipbuilders & designers STX OSV adopt new brand name following sale of STX Europe’s majority stake in the company to Fincantieri Oil & Gas. Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of VARD, Roy Reite, said, “I am excited to announce that VARD will be our new name. It conveys a sense of stability and strength, relevance and flexibility. More importantly, it reflects our long-standing Norwegian heritage, as well as our leading position within the offshore and specialized vessels industry globally.

Finland-headquartered DP manufacturer Navis Engineering has delivered its dynamic positioning system for the innovative cruise ferry Viking Grace. The 214-m long Viking Grace, delivered to her owner Viking Lines by the Turku-located STX Europe shipyard on January 10, 2013, is said to be one of the most environmentally-friendly ships built. It is the first large scale passenger ferry to be powered by liquefied natural gas, which reduces emissions significantly. The DP system delivered…

'MSC Preziosa' successfully completes sea trials with its GE Power Conversion electrical power & propulsion system. Built from the STX yard in Saint-Nazaire, France, MSC Preziosa is the latest ship in MSC’s Fantasia-class and the 12th in the MSC fleet. The vessel has recently completed a series of sea trials including propulsion and maneuverability (speed ranges, full speed, crash stop, power plant and propulsion interactions, full/partial propulsion configurations) as well as noise and vibration measurements.

Heikki Remes, a researcher at the Aalto University in Finland, has developed a model making it possible to determine how fatigue sets in with various welded steel materials. The model allows for the development of lighter structures, and as a consequence, more energy-efficient ships. By utilizing modern manufacturing technology and new materials, it is possible to achieve more efficient structures than the ones that currently exist. In addition, better physical models are needed to ensure structural strength, Remes says.

Heikki Remes, a researcher at the Aalto University in Finland, has developed a model making it possible to determine how fatigue sets in with various welded steel materials. The model allows for the development of lighter structures, and as a consequence, more energy-efficient ships. By utilizing modern manufacturing technology and new materials, it is possible to achieve more efficient structures than the ones that currently exist. In addition, better physical models are needed to ensure structural strength, Remes said.