Carnival Corp. Formally Sets Up Agreement with Chinese Yard
(Representatives from left to right) Gao Zefeng, Deputy General Manager, Transport Financing Department, Export-Import Bank of China; Chen Mingbo, Director General, Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information; Yang Jincheng, President of CSSC; Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri; Lei Fanpei, Chairman of CSSC; Shen Ying, Vice Chairman of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC); Miao Wei, Minister, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT); Xiao Guiyu, Vice Chairman of Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress; Arnold Donald, President & CEO of Carnival Corporation; Michael Thamm, Group CEO of Costa Group and Carnival Asia; Nan Daqing, Deputy General Manager of CSSC; Wang Hong, Party Secretary of Baoshan District, Shanghai Municipal Government.
Carnival Corp. and China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) have formally signed a joint venture agreement that will set up a separate company called CSSC Carnival Cruise Shipping Limited. The new company, located in China, will build, own and operate its own fleet of cruise ships to serve Chinese cruise guests by 2020.
From the cutout above, it’ll be a modified Carnival Vista-class.
This seems surprising that Carnival is still going ahead with this plan as the China market has been a complete bust for owner/operators. Also 2020 is way too early for a yard with no cruise ship building experience to complete a ship, let alone one the size of Vista.
