View Single Post
Old 03-22-2016, 08:07 AM   #38
BandB
Guru
 
BandB's Avatar
 
City: Fort Lauderdale. Florida, USA
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 21,449
Quote:
Originally Posted by RT Firefly View Post
Greetings,
Mr. BB. An observation from a learned remote source...
B&B wrote: "They build the boats in the most economical yards in the world."

Most economical does not mean the cheapest as his post implies. All but a very few of those boats are made in European yards that pay higher wages than American yards and far higher than Asian yards. The social benefits and labor conditions of the European yards far exceed those of American yards. The yards that build virtually all cruise ships are not 3rd world latrines.

The cruise ship owners pay for an extremely high tech and high quality product that makes the higher costs part of an economy of operation that no cheap labor yard could ever provide.

There is a good reason why the best engines, the best marine hardware, and the most innovative marine technology comes from Europe, in both design and manufacture. It is not because it comes from 3rd world sweatshops and cheap labor. (editorial comment tactfully removed...)
As you so astutely noted, I said "most economical", not "cheapest." At no point did I say anything about third world or Asian. So you appear to be arguing with something you stated up front that I didn't say. I guess I'm confused with how third world or Asian ever became introduced into this discussion.

Now, since you introduced third world and Asia, I might mention a very small percentage of classed boats, are built in Asia. They are for the most part built in Europe and the US.

As to my post implying cheapest, perhaps you inferred lowest labor rates or third world. These yards are cheapest for them in the long run. They are highly efficient yards that can handle the size and scale and build such huge passenger ships economically while meeting all the required specifications and class requirements. They are considerably more efficient in building such boats that say the largest yacht builders in the same areas of the world. They are well equipped to handle the volume, not just in number of ships, but the volume of a single ship. As a simple example, there is a huge difference in building a megayacht with 20 staterooms and building a cruise ship with thousands of cabins. Automation and technology plays a far greater role in building cruise ships. There is a lot of prefabrication, none of which you would see in a major yacht builder.

Perhaps "efficient" would have been a better choice of words, but I think less accurate as Feadship or Oceanco or Lurssen are very efficient, just very much each build unique and the economies available to a cruise ship builder not available to them.
BandB is offline   Reply With Quote