The year 2020 will go down in history due to the Corona pandemic. And the cruise industry, like many other tourism sectors, continues to be particularly hard hit. NEPTUN WERFT in Rostock-Warnemünde has responded to the crisis accordingly at an early stage: Diverse corona prevention measures safeguard the health of all people at the shipyard.
This was the only way NEPTUN WERFT could continue to operate during this crisis. At the same time, numerous other measures had to be taken to maintain the economic stability of the shipyard. An investment freeze and a comprehensive savings package as well as the reduction of temporary employees in the company and at partner companies as well as the instrument of short-time work initially create further planning security until the end of April 2021.
Despite the extremely adverse circumstances, NEPTUN WERFT once again succeeded in delivering two 140-metre-long engine room modules, so-called FERU (Floating Engine Room Unit), to MEYER WERFT in Papenburg and several hotel blocks to MEYER TURKU in Finland within one year. "In this way, we were also able to make further progress in the field of environmentally friendly liquefied natural gas (LNG) technology in the engine room modules thanks to the close cooperation with the other two shipyards of the MEYER Group as well as our partner Caterpillar here on site," says Lars Gunar Klasen, Operations Manager at NEPTUN WERFT.
In 2020, NEPTUN WERFT's expertise was also in demand for the construction of modern river cruise ships. Despite the standstill in the river cruise market as well, a total of six river cruise ships were delivered. In March, for example, two new Viking Longships with a length of 135 metres were handed over simultaneously to the shipping company Viking River Cruises (Basel). In the following months until autumn, four more river cruise ships followed, sailing later n on the River Seine. They will enter service next season in spring 2021.
In river cruising, the current focus is on optimising hygiene conditions through Corona and further reducing pollutants and emissions. NEPTUN WERFT is actively involved in several research projects on the use of fuel cells on these ships.
In 2021, NEPTUN WERFT will again deliver river cruise ships and engine room modules for Papenburg and Turku
