CCL Dumps The $

Last week, Carnival Corp followed through on what
executives told us a couple of weeks before. They
continued to order ships for the European brands, which
will pay for them in euros, while passing on the
opportunity to order for their US brands until the dollar
strengthens and ships become more affordable. Also as
foreshadowed a couple of weeks ago, the company
transferred a ship between brands for better utilization
of their assets.
Carnival ordered a new 112,000-ton ship for their
Costa brand. The ship will be built by Fincantieri and is
scheduled for delivery in the spring of 2007. From
additional comments Costa made, it seems that both this
ship and the earlier one they ordered in the series,
Costa Concordia, which will be delivered in the summer of
2006, will be deployed in year-round Mediterranean
service.
To achieve the 2007 delivery date, Carnival has agreed
to modified delivery dates on two other ships. Carnival
Freedom will now be delivered three months early in
February 2007, and Cunard's Queen Victoria will be
delayed by five months until December 2007.
At the same time, Carnival announced, Costa Tropicale
will be transferred to the P&O Australia this fall to
provide new capacity in the rapidly expanding Australian
market. The ship will be renamed Pacific Star.