NYK Group has ordered a new 744-guest cruise ship from Meyer Werft for its Asuka Cruises brand, which currently operates the luxury Asuka II.

The 51,950-ton ship will be delivered in 2025.

“It is another, very important step in securing the Papenburg location. For our current future program with enormously important savings and many different measures, new orders are absolutely necessary,” said Jan Meyer, Managing Director at Meyer Werft.

“In this extremely difficult global market situation and global competition, we were able to win our new customer from Japan as a new customer with the best ship concept, innovations, quality and what we consider to be a very challenging price,” he said. “I would like to thank the entire workforce and especially the sales and design department, who did a great job during this tense phase. It is the first order in the 226-year history of the shipyard in which all contract documents and plans were drawn up and negotiated in the context of video conferences. The effort was worthwhile.”

Of note, the ship will be dual-fuel and able to run on LNG.