Shipbuilding: After Two 'Difficult' Years, Meyer Turku Eyes a Positive Future

Finnish shipbuilder Meyer Turku announced its financial figures for 2020, noting that while the group has had two difficult years, it is slowly moving toward a more positive path.

Meyer Turku, part of the German-based Meyer Group, primarily builds cruise ships and large capacity ferries, two sectors where newbuild orders have been slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. But with many parts of the world now reopening to passenger ships, Meyer Turku is targeting a rebound. 

“Last year has been in several aspects an extraordinary difficult year, mainly impacted by corona resulting in high extra costs due to the restrictions and corona measures. Adapting our order book and consequently our capacity has affected our operation in 2020 severely. We do, however see now promising signs of recovery both in the cruise ship market and in our Meyer Turku Group financial figures. We are already working on the topics beyond the crisis such as the development of sustainable ship designs,” Meyer Turku CEO Tim Meyer said.

Last year saw the delivery of Carnival Mardi Gras in December. Earlier in the summer, Meyer Turku agreed with its customers on the stretching of the order book, reaching now until 2026. There has been no cancellations to the ship orders. Meyer Turku also went through employee cooperation negotiations and adjustments to investments. Still the result of Meyer Turku Oy in 2020 is negative €49.2 million.

“This year (2021) is a year for preparing for the new future we have in front of us. The full impact of our measures will take some time until they will display in our financial numbers, however,” Tim Meyer said.

Key Figures for Meyer Turku Group 2020 (including subsidiaries):