The Meyer Turku shipyard has started to work on the Carnival XL1 project, a GT 180k-big cruise ship that, once delivered, will be the biggest in the fleet of the Miami-based Carnival Cruise Line.

The ship, to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG), will offer room for 5,286 guests. The yet-unnamed vessel is expected to enter traffic in 2020, operating from Florida. A second XL class ship is scheduled for delivery in 2022.

"With the first steel cutting, our efforts in designing the hull, features and interior of the ship start to take shape. We are also very proud to build the first-ever LNG using cruise ship for North American market, making this state-of-the-art green technology a reality," Jan Meyer, CEO, Meyer Turku, commented.

In this regard, he also referred to the shipyard's €200m investment programme by saying, "With our new steel pre-treatment facility and storage and of course the new gantry crane that started operation in May, we are already seeing the effects of these investments. Next we will take further custom designed machines with increased automation into use in hull production. This all is happening in parallel with our ramp-up of both design and production in order to deliver on the promises we have made to our customers. For us and the network this is very exciting time as we are able to really show what we are capable of with the design and also the construction of these very sophisticated cruise ships."

Photo: Meyer Turku