Fincantieri To Build Shipyard in Mexico

[The Cruise Junkie]

Well this is interesting. Looks like the Oasis class has found a new dry dock in North America. 

Fincantieri To Build Shipyard in Mexico, Cruise Work Targeted - Cruise Industry News | Cruise News

 

[monctonguy]

Interesting to see that for sure!

[cruisellama]

Nice location for quicker turns on Caribbean based larger ships.  Maybe not so susceptible to collapsing cranes.

[twangster]

I read over on another forum a user claims they will use floating drydocks instead of digging out a graving dock.  

Chances are 90% of the work will come from non-cruise ships simply because there are so many more tankers, cargo and container ships compared to cruise ships.  

The Freeport yard owned jointly by Royal and Carnival may eventually get back into the fray if they get the two broken dry docks back in service.  Even if they do they likely won't attempt the mega ships in Freeport again plus some maintenance does require the entire ship be dry, not just part of it.  Royal and Carnival will likely continue to use Freeport for the ships that will fit simply because they own the yard.

Only time will tell what Oasis class do.  It will be 2024 when the next cycle begins with Oasis for her 5 year mandatory dry dock.  That will be her 15th year in service and she will soon reach the time when ships begin to require more frequent visits to dry docks for mandatory maintenance.  Older ships must dry dock every two and half years so doing so in Mexico versus crossing the Atlantic will be very compelling.  Even more so on a 30 month cycle because that won't always line up with the European summer cruise season so avoiding a costly transatlantic off season will be significant.

With Icon class on the horizon having a shipyard capable of mega ships in North America could be a game changer looking well down the road.  Even for Odyssey they will have to see how her numbers look in the Caribbean versus the Med.  If she makes more money in the Caribbean seasons and they can keep her here in 5 years time when she needs her first mandatory dry dock I'm sure they'll have no issues having the work done in Mexico.  

By the time any of Royal's largest ships in the Atlantic basin require a dry dock there will have been hundreds of non-cruise ships through the Progresso shipyard and it will be well known in the shipping industry how the quality of work in this yard compares to other shipyards.   I suspect it will be fine.  Fincantieri knows ships.  It's their shipyard and while numerous blue collar jobs will be staffed by Mexicans they will staff management, engineering and other key positions from around the world.   At the end of the day the shipyard has to compete with other shipyards or it will fail.