Mega Deal and Shipyard Drama: How Europe is Building the Cruise Ships of the Future

Business is absolutely booming for the Italian Fincantieri shipyard. With the new billion-dollar orders from the German-speaking market, their order books are bursting at the seams. The Italians are scoring points with the shipping companies primarily through state-of-the-art environmental technology, such as flexible multi-fuel engines. Another massive advantage is that Fincantieri enjoys strong government backing. This enables highly secure and attractive financing models for the expensive new ship builds.

In Papenburg, however, the situation looked dramatic until recently. The traditional Meyer Werft fell into severe financial difficulties. Extremely high interest rates for the pre-financing of ships and outdated fixed-price contracts completely devoured their profits. Without state assistance, ultimate collapse was imminent. To save thousands of jobs and the region's maritime expertise, the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony finally stepped in. They took over 80 percent of the shipyard and secured ongoing operations with billions of euros in guarantees.

Fortunately, this drastic rescue operation brought the hoped-for success. At the end of 2025, the Meyer Werft secured a historic mega-deal. The Swiss shipping company MSC Cruises ordered four new cruise ships, with options for up to six, for around ten billion euros. This gigantic order now ensures that the docks in Papenburg will be operating at full capacity well into the 2030s. Europe's shipbuilding industry thus remains internationally strong, even if the state is now permanently at the helm.