The biggest cruise ship ever built could be scuttled before its maiden voyage after its German builder went kaput.
Global Dream II, a 1,122-foot vessel that features an outdoor waterpark and a cinema and was designed to carry up to 9,000 passengers, cost $1.8 billion to build. But now it could be sold for scrap after Christoph Morgen, a trustee for its now-bankrupt German builder, MV Werften, failed to find a buyer for the nearly-finished luxury liner.
“Faced with the tight deadline to get the Global Dream out of its building dock by the end of 2023, recycling the ship in Turkey is a last resort that Morgen hopes to avoid,” wrote industry analyst TradeWinds.
The Global Dream III would be the biggest cruise ship ever built, but it may never sail. (GREGOR FISCHER/AFP via Getty Images)
MV Werften was nearly done building the 20-deck megaliner when it went bankrupt in January. Morgen, who is winding down the assets of the shipbuilder, told Bloomberg News in February that he had three potential buyers for the ship.
“We will have a speedy process, but there’s no need for a fire sale,” Morgen said at the time. “Our target is to get the highest price.”
The trustee appointed charged with winding down the shipbuilder’s assets has been unable to find a buyer, and the shipyard must be cleared to make way for the German Navy. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The German government offered loans to try to help MV Werften stay afloat, but the company was apparently done in by the COVID pandemic, which clobbered the cruise industry. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told Bloomberg News the government was willing to subsidize the small amount of finishing work in passenger facilities that was left to be done on the ship in order to make it more attractive for a sale.
But all potential deals have apparently fallen through, according to the Daily Mail. Now it has to be moved out of the defunct company’s shipyard in Wismar, which is being turned into a Navy yard.
The biggest cruise ship currently operating is the Oasis-class Wonder of the Seas, which is owned by Royal Caribbean and has a passenger capacity of 6,988, according to the Mail.
MV Werften is owned by Genting, a Malaysian company controlled by billionaire Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay.