Finland’s new Meyer Turku Oy shipyard has celebrated its first newbuild float out since the Turku shipyard changed ownership just last month.
Meyer Turku CEO, Jan Meier, and the new CEO of TUI Cruises, Wybcke Meier, were on-hand October 10th to flood the dry dock and float the Mein Schiff 4, a new 99,000 GT cruise ship for TUI Cruises. The float out marked the first new ship since Meyer Werft and the Finland government acquired the shipyard from STX Europe. The deal had just closed on September 19.
Finland’s new Meyer Turku Oy shipyard has celebrated its first newbuild float out since the Turku shipyard changed ownership just last month.
Meyer Turku CEO, Jan Meier, and the new CEO of TUI Cruises, Wybcke Meier, were on-hand October 10th to flood the dry dock and float the Mein Schiff 4, a new 99,000 GT cruise ship for TUI Cruises. The float out marked the first new ship since Meyer Werft and the Finland government acquired the shipyard from STX Europe. The deal had just closed on September 19.
“This day is special in many ways. We have the opportunity to witness the float-out of the first new-build of Meyer Turku. I am very pleased that Mein Schiff 4 is right on schedule. It is good to continue from here and proceed to outfitting and commissioning phases,” says Jan Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku Oy.
“As my first official act in my new role at TUI Cruises, setting a well-being ship afloat is a fantastic beginning,” said Wybcke Meier, CEO of TUI Cruises.
Production of the Mein Schiff 4 began in May 2013 when the shipyard was still STX Finland Oy. The vessel is expected to be delivered to TUI Cruises in Spring 2015. A previous ship in the series, Mein Schiff 3, was delivered from the yard in May and a fourth and fifth vessel are also planned to begin construction in November 2014 and 2015, respectively.
The 99,500-GT cruise ships are approximately 294 meters long by 36 meter wide and have approximately 1,250 cabins (2,500 lower beds) and a crew of 1,000. Special attention has been paid to environmental friendliness and energy efficiency of the ships, according to Meyer Turku.
Meyer Turku notes that the domestic content in all the Mein Schiff ships is approximately 80% and each vessel brings approximately 5,000 person-years of labour to Meyer Turku shipyard, as well as a significant amount of labour for the Finnish maritime industry as a whole.
Meyer Turku Oy is now owned by Meyer Werft (70 %) and Finnish State through Teollisuussijoitus (30 %). The shipyard in Turku employs 1,350 people and specializes in building cruise ships, car-passenger ferries and special vessels. The
Neptune Orient Considering Sale of APL Logistics
CJ Korea Express Co., the country’s biggest courier delivery company, is considering an acquisition of Neptune Orient Lines Ltd.’s logistics business.
CJ Korea Express is weighing options relating to Neptune Orient’s APL Logistics Ltd. unit, including an acquisition or forming a strategic alliance, it said in an exchange filing today. Neptune Orient may start the sale of APL Logistics as early as the end of this month and the unit could fetch more than $1 billion should the entire business be sold, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Neptune Orient, Southeast Asia’s biggest container line, is forecast to post a fourth straight annual loss this year as slowing economic growth and excess capacity hurts shipping rates. In the past two years, the Singapore-based company has sold its main office building and some vessels to cut costs.
Shares of Neptune Orient fell as much as 4.1 percent, the biggest intraday decline since November 2012, and closed 3.6 percent lower at 81.5 Singapore cents. CJ Korea Express rose 4.9 percent to close at the highest since at least 1975.
The company said in August that it is considering options for APL Logistics, including a sale or initial public offering. The unit accounted for 18 percent of sales last year.
Neptune Orient said today in an e-mailed statement there haven’t been any material developments on its review of the business and there’s no assurance a deal will be completed.
“The logistics business has been a consistent profit generator,” said Jon Windham, an analyst at Barclays Plc in Hong Kong. Companies with logistics business in North America, such as APL Logistics, will be attractive for investors as manufacturing gets decentralized from China, he said.
Neptune Orient reported a loss of $152 million in the first half, compared with a profit a year earlier. APL Logistics posted $32 million in core earnings before net finance, tax and exceptional items, while the container shipping business had a loss of $112 million.
Revenue from the Americas accounted for 63 percent of APL Logistics’s total $802 million in the first half of this year. Its business includes working with the automotive industry in North America.
CJ Korea Express has said it’s interested in growing its business outside the country and has been looking at acquisition opportunities.
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