Chinese Ship Manufacturers Pick up Roro Pax Market

Shen Suwen

In the recent two-year booming luxury cruiser market, there are ongoing newbuilding projects which are almost all large ship projects. In fact, the passenger roro market also deserves attention and shows a tendency to scale up, and European shipowners have in succession announced many large highend passenger roro projects. Chinese ship manufacturers obtained several projects including the global largest roro pax.

A wave of alternative innovation for large passenger ferries emerged in Europe in 2016-2017. Gotland Ferry, Tallink,Balearia and Stena Line implemented large passenger roro construction plans,a number of ships were on the table and they were almost all LNG-based. Chinese construction projects caught the eyes.

Stena Line, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, ordered 4 roro paxs at China-based CNAC Weihai Shipyard, delivery is scheduled for 2019-2020, with 4-ship option order. Finnish shipping company Viking Line signed an LNG-powered ferry letter of intent with Xiamen Shipbuilding, the ship price was Eur190 million and the delivery date is in the spring of 2020.

Chinese ship manufacturers have frequently received major orders in the high-end passenger roro market this year. On February 11, CSSC Guangzhou Shipyard International and China Shipbuilding Industry Trading Corp.signed 4+2+2 2500-passenger/3765m lane luxury cruiser roro pax construction contract with MSC and MOBY under Italian Onorato Group in Beijing. CSSC Chairman Dong Qiang, General Manager Wu Qiang, Deputy General Manager Nan Daqing, MSC Cruise Executive Chairman Pierre Francesco Seuvio Waco, Onorato Group Vice Chairman and MOBY CEO Achili Unola, and ICBC Financial Leasing Co Ltd President Zhao Guicai attended the signing ceremony.

The signed luxury cruiser roro pax has an overall length of 229.5m, molded breadth of 32m and 536 compartments,accommodates 2500 passengers, cargo hold length reaches 3765m, service speed is about 23.5 knots, classified with RINA,with a series of energy conservation and environmental protection characteristics,including application of waste heat recovery system and reservation of LNG as fuel power. The first roro ship will be put into service in 2020.

Dong Qiang said that with upgrading tourism consumption concept,toughened energy conservation and emission reduction requirements and increasingly aging fleet, global passenger fleet upgrade demand has been increasing and the newbuilding market has been increasingly active in recent years. CSSC has kept up with the market trend, its shipyards have taken the lead in entering the field of luxury passenger ship/roro ship construction, accumulated design and construction experience, successively delivered a number of luxury passengers ships of first class quality and excellent property to global shipowners and won high recognition on the international market. The contract conclusion fully embodied MSC and MOBY’s trust and support for CSSC and Guangzhou Shipyard International. It will further uplift Guangzhou Shipyard International’s brand influence on the high passenger ship construction market and assist the Chinese shipbuilding industry in further transformation and upgrading and stepping towards a shipbuilding power. With sincere cooperation and win-win concept,all parties to the contract will jointly build a number of high quality ships and further improve MSC and MOBY’s influence and competitiveness in the global roro pax operation sector. CSSC will take the opportunity to constantly improve its technical reserves and innovation strength in the luxury roro pax sector, try to become a sector leader with global influence and build world class 1 innovative ocean equipment group of global competitiveness in an all-round way.

Pierre Francesco Seuvio Waco said that as far as MSC was concerned,the signing had milestone significance and fulfilled MSC’s commitment to the important market of China. In past few years, the Chinese shipbuilding industry led by CSSC has made rapid development,with much improved technology, and has become an important force in the international shipbuilding market. MSC is willing to further expand cooperation scope with CSSC to the luxury cruiser roro pax sector and mutual cooperation will certainly bear fruit.

Achili Unola said the signing had important significance to Onorato Group and would enable Onorato Group to take a major step towards building forwardlooking and future-oriented totally new roro pax. The new ships will become the global largest ever roro paxs, their comfort and technical content are unique and will become a brand new benchmark in the industry. Onorato Group has paid high attention to innovation and these new ships will become yet another convincing proof of Onorato Group dedicated to improving logistics and passenger transport efficiency in the Mediterranean Sea. CSSC and Guangzhou Shipyard International enjoy powerful strength in the roro pax construction sector and mutual cooperation will certainly achieve success.

Zhao Guicai said CSSC is China’s largest shipbuilding group and also ICBC Financial Leasing’s most important partner. Over recent years both parties have carried out close cooperation in the newbuilding sector, created cooperation model, jointly explored the market with“Finance+Manufacture” format,realized win-win alliance and fruitful results. ICBC Financial Leasing will fully give play to it own advantages, closely cooperate with CSSC, MSC and MOBY and strive to win more cooperation results.

One day afterwards, on February 12, Guangzhou Shipyard International signed a 2+1+1 600-passenger/4500m lane luxury roro pax construction contract with Denmark DFDS shipping company in Guangzhou. The ship has overall length of 230m, molded breadth of 31m,molded width of 9.85m, design draft of 6.8m, dead weight of about 11950 tons,manning 662, Finnish DELTA MARIN（DM） was responsible for scheme and detailed design, classified with LR. The first ship will be delivered in 2021.

Shipbuilding is a labor intensive industry, countries with developed shipbuilding industry have weakened their ability to absorb labor due to automation popularization and promotion.In the sectors of roro pax and similar ship type cruiser, retrofitting (piping, wiring,build-in) where automation can hardly find its application involves a huge amount of work, with many peripheral industries. One of difficulties Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard encountered in building a luxury cruiser for Ida Cruise was that Kyushu and Shikoku lacked a sufficient number of piping, wiring and build-in operators. It has become one of key points for shipyard operation whether orders received are enough to sustain skilled workers. From this perspective,construction focus of such ships will very likely shift to countries of sufficient labor.This means the global roro pax market will undergo some changes in future and Chinese ship manufacturers will have a promising outlook in the sector.★