Massive Cruise Ship May Be Scrapped Because It Can't Find Buyer
- The half-finished cruise ship Global Dream II could be sold for scrap.
- MV Werften was building it for Dream Cruises. Its parent company declared bankruptcy in January.
- A second vessel, Global Dream, is about 80% finished but struggling to find a buyer, An Bord said.
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A massive unfinished cruise ship is likely to be sold for scrap after its maker declared bankruptcy because no one wants to buy it, the German cruise-industry magazine An Bord first reported.
Attempts are being made to sell some of the fixtures and engines from Global Dream II, Christoph Morgen, an insolvency administrator at Brinkmann & Partner, said at a press conference, according to An Bord.
After that, the vessel's half-finished keel — complete only in the lower-hull area — will be sold for scrap, Morgen said, according to An Bord.
A spokesperson for Brinkmann & Partner confirmed to Insider that components from the vessels, as well as the partly finished hull, were for sale.
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MV Werften, the German shipbuilder that was constructing the vessel, is owned by the holding company Genting Hong Kong. Both filed for bankruptcy in January. The ship maker was building the vessel for a series of global-class ships for Dream Cruises, one of the three cruise lines owned by Genting.
Global Dream, the other vessel in the series, is also incomplete. It's sitting at the MV Werften dock in Wismar, Germany, An Bord reported. Earlier this month. the shipyard was sold to a maker of naval vessels that plans to build watercraft, including submarines, at the site starting in early 2024, An Bord reported. This leaves a year and a half to shift the two Global Dream ships.
Though numerous parties expressed interest in buying and finishing Global Dream, the insolvency administrator never received a proper offer, An Bord said.
Global Dream is about 80% finished, Morgen told the German radio station NDR. In its current state, the vessel is buoyant and can be towed elsewhere if attached to an ocean tugboat, An Bord reported.
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But the ship was designed for service in Asia, and a new owner would have to spend a significant amount of money redesigning its cabin, deck, and drive concept if it wanted to deploy it elsewhere in the world, An Bord said.
The Swedish holding company Stena AB, which owns a ferry line, was interested in buying Global Dream but dropped out over uncertainty in the Asian cruise market, including China's strict restrictions on travel, according to reports.
If no serious offers are made for the vessel in the coming weeks, Global Dream will be sold in an auction where it could ultimately be bought for scrap, An Bord reported. The Maritime Executive reported that the liquidators denied these claims and maintained that they're looking for a buyer. The Brinkmann & Partner spokesperson told Insider that it hadn't been decided whether Global Dream would be sold at auction.
Work on Global Dream started in March 2018, and the vessel was set to debut in early 2021 as one of the biggest cruise ships. The 1,122-foot ship was intended to fit more than 9,000 passengers across 2,500 cabins, as well as 2,200 crew.
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Dream Cruises said the cabins would be about 15% larger than those available on other vessels and include face- and voice-recognition software. The ship was also going to feature a theme park.
Before MV Werften stopped operations in January, it had close to 2,000 workers, according to The Maritime Executive.
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