Hamburg, 07.07.2021: The corona crisis has unsettled the population and the economy worldwide and has had drastic consequences in some cases. This affected and still affects a segment in which we are active with the construction of cruise ships. While naval shipbuilding continued in a relatively orderly fashion under Covid-19, the construction of large passenger ships was more or less idle.
This also affected the MV Werften with their locations in Wismar, Warnemünde and Stralsund, which were and are, in the truest sense of the word, their largest order ever: the construction of global class ships, luxury liners in a class of their own, as well as the Construction of the Crystal Endeavor, an expedition cruise ship that is second to none.
As a supplier of important components such as the HVAC system, the main chiller and the provision cooling system for the Global ships with build numbers BN125 and BN126 and the provision cooling for the Crystal Endeavor, BN 124, we have been designing and building since 2016 involved in these ocean liners. In March 2020, in the context of the pandemic and the resulting consequences, all activities were suspended by the shipyard management. It was now important for us to set an example: unlike other market participants who have massively reduced or withdrawn their teams, we have consistently stayed with our customers with the well-rehearsed team. This ensured continuous support for the shipyard throughout.
We made good use of the long months of the lockdown: Intensive investments were made in the training and further education of our team in Wismar. We have also been able to optimize our processes and the entire logistics in the meantime. Last but not least, we have prepared the later restart of the activities with the help of a detailed situation assessment. On this basis, we were able to resume work on the BN125 in specific sub-areas in November 2020 in close cooperation with MV Werften and, together with our customer, achieve an important completion milestone with no remaining points.
The signs for the BN124, the Crystal Endeavor, were even better: Since the beginning of 2021 we have been working intensively on completing our systems. On June 26th, after two successfully completed test drives, this luxury expedition yacht was christened in Stralsund and handed over to the owner.
At the same time, the uncertainty about the restart of the BN125 has cleared up: After long months with “handbrake on”, we can look forward to resuming work in the summer. Together with the MV Werften we can show that we steered the ship through some shallows with our combined forces. Our most important message: We'll stay on board - even if it gets difficult!