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EXPEDITION MARKET
The Roald
Amundsen under
construction at
Kleven.
Adventures in Shipbuilding
Even more diverse than the companies and growth in the was missed. The Flying Clipper, the world’s largest sailing
expedition market may be the number of shipyards that have ship, is under construction at the yard but details are sparse.
seemingly come out of the woodwork to build new, highly-
customized, highly-complicated expedition cruise ships. Another yard in Croatia, Uljanik, has also appeared on the
cruise scene. An order for a six-star ship for Scenic was dou-
Ten yards have expedition orders, and more are competing bled earlier this year, as Uljanik will now deliver the Scenic
globally to enter the market. Eclipse this summer, and a second vessel in 2020.
VARD is perhaps in the driver’s seat, with the majority Facing challenges, however, the yard fell into financial
of the orderbook, multiple shipyards, and a majority share- straits earlier this year. It was temporarily bailed out by
holder in Fincantieri, which has built over 90 cruise ships. the Croatian government and now has a new owner in Ker-
mas Energija, which is controlled by Croatian entrepreneur
After specializing in offshore ships, declining oil prices Danko Koncar.
saw the industry collapse. VARD was able to respond, and
now counts Hapag-Lloyd, Ponant, Viking Ocean and Coral Norwegian Hopes
as customers.
Kleven shipyard in Norway is another yard with a long oil,
The concept has been unique. The hulls for Hapag-Lloyd gas and offshore track record that was bitten by oil prices.
and Ponant are being built in Romania, where labor is cheap.
The ships are then towed to one of a handful of VARD facili- The yard landed Hurtigruten’s contract for a pair of hybrid
ties in Norway, where the experts finish the hotel. For Coral, expedition ships, with deliveries in 2018 and 2019, respec-
an Australia operation means the brand is using VARD’s fa- tively.
cility in Vietnam to build.
That has now been pushed back, with the first ship seeing
Croatian Double an eight month delay amid financial issues at the yard and a
highly complex ship design.
Brodosplit in Croatia is building the Hondius for Ocean-
wide. The DIV Group-owned shipyard has built a wide vari- Last September, Hurtigruten became part of an invest-
ety of vessels, over 450 in total, but is short on cruise experi- ment group that put NOK 300 million into Kleven for a 40
ence. percent interest in the yard.
The Hondius is set for a May 2019 delivery. Another proj- In addition to Hurtigruten, through Strawberry Equity
ect for Star Clippers has gone quiet after a 2017 delivery date and TDR, the group includes Åge Remøy, the Kleven-family
companies John Kleven AS and H-Invest AS, the German
106 Cruise Industry News: 2018 Expedition Market Report
