Cruise ship company MSC Cruises confirmed orders for four ships in a 3-billion-euro ($3.26 billion) deal that will secure thousands of jobs at the STX shipyard in St-Nazaire in the west of France.
"These are the biggest cruise ships yet built by a European operator - each using around 35,000 tons of steel," the company said in a statement.
STX France is 66 percent owned by South Korea's STX Corp and 33 percent owned by the French state, according to STX France's website.
(Reporting by Guillaume Frouin; writing by Brian Love)