ALMACO secured the order to build 1121 passenger and crew cabins plus all the galleys, bars, pantries and provision stores, including cold rooms, freezers and walk-ins, for Viking Line’s newbuild at Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. (XSI) shipyard in China.
For the accommodations portion of the order, ALMACO’s contract includes visual turnkey with some background works for all passenger and crew cabin areas as well as crew public areas.
The catering areas delivery involves the visual turnkey installation, including flooring, wall and ceiling stainless steel panels, of approximately 800 sq. m. of galleys and 380 sq. m. of provision stores.
According to Viking Lines, the newbuild “will be one of the most climate-smart ships in the world” and will feature ALMACO’s latest energy-saving Galley Energy Management system GEM 2.0. As Jan Hanses, President and CEO of Viking Line states about the ship, “Optimized energy efficiency and environmentally-friendly solutions have been focal points for the project, and the new vessel will be among the most energy efficient ships in the world.” ALMACO’s GEM 2.0 system not only brings up to 20% savings in energy consumption in the galley, but will also help manage the galley operations to minimize energy waste.
Viking Line and ALMACO pioneered energy efficiency for catering solutions in 2013 with M/S Viking Grace, which was the first vessel to use ALMACO’s GEM system and the first LNG-powered large passenger ship.
The project is expected to be completed in 2020 and to be launched for operation in early 2021 on the Turku–Åland–Stockholm route.