Three hundred and twenty-two meters long and 64 meters high, 113 thousand gross tons and cabins for 3 thousand passengers and 1200 crew members. There Cunard Linea historic cruise company founded in 1838, has always named its ships after kings and queens and that launched yesterday at the Fincantieri shipyard was no exception. «The Queen Anne is a ship that has deep roots in tradition, but she also looks to innovation and the future», he underlines Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO of the national shipbuilding giant. And precisely on innovation, Fincanteri is ready to launch a new challenge: that of the digital and zero-emission ship. «But the one that is built on site, industrialized with black nails, not the one at conferences», adds Folgiero. And the government is ready to lend a hand on this, because, as the Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso says, “the economy of the sea and that of space are the two sectors of the future”. «And it is for this reason – continues Urso – that the Meloni government first established the Ministry of the Sea to give a strategic vision to this sector and now we are working on a framework bill on the “blue economy” to enhance the role of this industry”. And Venice will be in the foreground. «Marghera can be the center of the national shipbuilding and nautical industry», she assures.
Cunard’s third for Fincatieri
Queen Anne is the third ship built by Fincantieri for Cunard, whose current fleet thus rises to four (but it is the 249th in the company’s history), for ocean crossings departing from Southampton, where it will arrive in the next few days. Many authorities in the audience, starting with the other minister Luca Ciriani (Relations with Parliament) and the Cunard president Katie McAlister. «I am proud to be here today – she says – You have done a fantastic job, this is a ship with personality». «There is a lot of Veneto inside this ship – adds the regional budget councilor Francesco Calzavara – also in the workforce, which reflects a region in which 12 percent of the inhabitants are non-EU citizens: integration also takes place with these work paths».
Luxury giant
With the change of flag (from the Italian one to the British “Union Jack”) and the passage of the flask with the first water touched, from the director of the Marghera shipyard Marco Lunardi to the future commander Inger Klein Thorhauge, the launch is official. They are inside 15 restaurants, the theater for shows, gyms and spas and cabins for all budgets, up to the very luxurious suites. «In here there is everything made in Italy – underlines Urso – Refinement, elegance, refinement, materials, furnishings: a style that allows us to create these products on the global market and to reach 4 billion euros of exports in the shipbuilding sector ». Also the result of the work of thousands of engineers and workers and many SMEs in the area.
The future
But the opportunity is good for Folgiero to also talk about future. In recent days Fincantieri has obtained an order for four ships from Norwegian Cruise Line. «I don’t yet know if the Marghera shipyard will also be affected, but what I can say is that the sector is recovering and there will be no lack of work and employment in our Italian shipyards – he states – Although 95 percent of “ship building” has migrated to the East, the 5 percent that has remained here is the highly complex one, where raw materials, energy and work only account for 20 percent.” And the future focuses even more on innovation. «Today we work on LNG, but the solutions of tomorrow are called methanol and hydrogen – continues Folgiero – The energy transition has already begun in maritime transport, even if it will not be simple: hydrogen has problems with costs, storage and stability of the molecule, but we are already working to resolve them to put 6 megawatts on ships, a tenth of overall requirement”. Then the digital: «We are working on data platforms to historicize the behavior of the ship – concludes the CEO – We are talking about energy management, to manage more efficient consumption and save money».
