Freshly Minted Meyer Turku Shipyard Floats First Ship

Mein Schiff 4. Photo credit Meyer Turku

Finland’s new Meyer Turku Oy shipyard has celebrated its first newbuild float out since the Turku shipyard changed ownership just last month.

Meyer Turku CEO, Jan Meier, and the new CEO of TUI Cruises, Wybcke Meier, were on-hand October 10th to flood the dry dock and float the Mein Schiff 4, a new 99,000 GT cruise ship for TUI Cruises. The float out marked the first new ship since Meyer Werft and the Finland government acquired the shipyard from STX Europe. The deal had just closed on September 19.

“This day is special in many ways. We have the opportunity to witness the float-out of the first new-build of Meyer Turku. I am very pleased that Mein Schiff 4 is right on schedule. It is good to continue from here and proceed to outfitting and commissioning phases,” says Jan Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku Oy.

“As my first official act in my new role at TUI Cruises, setting a well-being ship afloat is a fantastic beginning,” said Wybcke Meier, CEO of TUI Cruises.

Production of the Mein Schiff 4 began in May 2013 when the shipyard was still STX Finland Oy. The vessel is expected to be delivered to TUI Cruises in Spring 2015. A previous ship in the series, Mein Schiff 3, was delivered from the yard in May and a fourth and fifth vessel are also planned to begin construction in November 2014 and 2015, respectively.

The 99,500-GT cruise ships are approximately 294 meters long by 36 meter wide and have approximately 1,250 cabins (2,500 lower beds) and a crew of 1,000. Special attention has been paid to environmental friendliness and energy efficiency of the ships, according to Meyer Turku.

Meyer Turku notes that the domestic content in all the Mein Schiff ships is approximately 80% and each vessel brings approximately 5,000 person-years of labour to Meyer Turku shipyard, as well as a significant amount of labour for the Finnish maritime industry as a whole.

Meyer Turku Oy is now owned by Meyer Werft (70 %) and Finnish State through Teollisuussijoitus (30 %). The shipyard in Turku employs 1,350 people and specializes in building cruise ships, car-passenger ferries and special vessels. The

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