Genting Hong Kong recently announced that it has entered into an agreement with Germany’s Lloyd Werft Group to order 10 luxury cruise ships. The company operates some of the biggest cruise brands in the world including Star Cruises, Dream Cruises and Crystal Cruises.

The order from the Lloyd Werft Group is for eight mid-sized ships that weigh around 50,000 gross tonnes and for two mega ships that weigh around 200,000 gross tonnes and have 5,000 lower berths. The eight mid-size ships will go to Crystal Cruises who focus on targeting the international luxury cruise market while the two mega ships will go to Star Cruises who focus on the contemporary Chinese market.

The signing ceremony was held in Germany and attended by a number of key executives including Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, chairman of Genting Hong Kong, Martin Günthner, Senator for Economics and Port Affairs of Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Erwin Sellering Prime Minister of the State Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Uwe Beckmeyer, State Secretary of Maritime Affairs.

Genting Hong Kong wants to focus on turning these cruise liners into ‘global class ships’ that provide passengers with an international cruise experience to whichever country they travel. Their experience will be customized to ensure that they feel at home by providing them with cuisine, enrichment programmes, culture shows and excursions that give them a comfortable environment. These ten cruise ships are expected to be ready before the end of 2020.

In a statement, Genting Hong Kong said “The rapid growth of the world cruise industry, especially in China, has led to global cruise ship orders reaching an all-time high. As a consequence, the Group faces the potential risk of being unable to obtain sufficient cruise ship building slots at acceptable prices to implement its planned 10 year cruise ship fleet strategy for its three cruise brands, Crystal Cruises, Dream Cruises and Star Cruises.”

Genting Hong Kong had also recently purchased three shipyards from the Lloyd Werft Group for $250.8 million as the company is looking to rapidly expand its fleet and wants to make sure the ships are delivered as early as possible. The company has also confirmed plans to partner with the Lloyd Werft Group and create a ship design centre for building new ships.

Rüdiger Pallentin, the managing director of Lloyd Werft Group stated that Genting Hong Kong decided to go with Lloyd Werft as they were looking for quality built cruise ships. Pallentin also stated that China plays a critical role in Germany’s cruise industry as China now has a high quality production setup for big ship components and also provides financial and operational support while Germany plays more of an assembling role in the cruise ship industry.