MEYER WERFTShipyard Delivers for the Expansion of Transport Infrastructure in Southeast Asian Archipelago

Papenburg, 23.10.2002 - The Papenburg MEYER WERFT shipyard is going to build a new passenger ship for the Republic of Indonesoia. The contract to build this ship was signed in Jakarta today. The now ordered ship for 3,084 passengers will be delivered to Indonesia in mid 2004. With this vessel, the Papenburg shipbuilders resume the series of 22 passenger ships already built for Indonesia. In spring 2002 Nggapulu was the last ship delivered so far to Indonesia. The main technical data of this new ship are: tonnage 15,200 GT, length 146.50 m, breadth 23.50 m, draught 5,90 m, speed 22.4 knots. With an engine capacity of 2 x 8,400 kw the ship is designed to accommodate more than 3,000 passengers and to transport 26 containers as well as bulk cargo. MEYER WERFT won this order as the Indonesian customer assigned the highest score to their tender with regards to the technical part and the ship's price during evaluation of the invitation to bid. Starting in mid 2004, the ship will be appointed for the regular transportation of the Indonesian archipelago. The vessel is a technical further development of the passenger ships already built in Papenburg which operate extremely successful and contribute a lot to the transport infrastructure in Indonesia. Like the previous newbuildings the ship will be built according to the rules and requirements of the BKI (Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia), the Germanischer Lloyd and the recent international regulations. Safety devices of the ship therefore comply with the latest standards. This worldwide biggest series of standardized passenger ships has proved itself extremely for the operation betweeen the Indonesian islands. Meanwhile these ships have become a symbol for the German/Indonesian cooperation and they have contributed to the development of the transport infrastructure and with it to the development of the economics of the maritime continent. Given the recent economic crisis in Indonesia the economically priced and safe shipping traffic has become the most important long-distance means of transport for the Indonesian population. In 2001 alone, more than 10 million passengers travelled on these ships and more than 80 million passengers altogether since 1983.