MSC Cruises extends fleet expansion with focus on next-generation environmental technology

MSC Cruises and Chantiers de l’Atlantique sign firm contracts for construction of third and fourth LNG-powered MSC World Class ships.

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World Class LNG-powered ships

MSC Cruises’ third and fourth LNG-powered MSC World Class ships will be delivered in 2025 and 2027. The first of the initial two ships in the class is currently under construction at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire and is due to enter service in 2022.

MSC Cruises and Chantiers de l’Atlantique also extended their partnership over the next decade with two additional projects.

New prototype class of LNG-powered cruise ships

A memorandum of understanding was signed for the development of yet a new prototype class of LNG-powered cruise ships to operate under the MSC Cruises brand. There will be four vessels in this new class and the project will focus on developing emerging environmental technologies in line with IMO’s vision for 2030 and 2050.

Wind powered ships

MSC Cruises and Chantiers de l’Atlantique will also develop and explore the opportunities that wind power and other advanced technologies could bring to passenger shipping.

Pierfrancesco Vago, Executive Chairman, MSC Cruises, said

The three agreements signed today extend our investment plan up to 2030. They stem from an exceptional partnership, with Chantiers de l’Atlantique, that has already delivered 15 highly-innovative innovative cruise ships over the past two decades and will see many more vessels come to life at Saint-Nazaire’s docks in the next ten years. They also confirm this industry’s commitment to environmental sustainability, in this case helping the French national industry further position itself as a world leader in the development of next-generation technologies and other solutions.

MSC Cruises is strongly committed to achieving a zero-impact future by investing in the accelerated development of new energy solutions and environmental technologies that will allow that. At the start of 2020, MSC Cruises became the first major cruise line to achieve carbon neutral fleet operations by offsetting CO2 emissions from its fleet that it is not be possible to abate through such technology through a blend of high standard carbon offset projects.