Costa Cruises announced an agreement with the Italian Shipbuilding company Fincantieri for construction of two new cruise ships destined for Costa brand in Asia. These contracts should be operational in 2016. Each cruise ship will have a gross tonnage of 135,500 tons and a capacity of 4,200 guests. The ships will be designed specifically for the Chinese market, and will send sail in 2019 and 2020.

The new ships for Costa Asia are part of a memorandum of understanding signed between Carnival Corporation & plc and Fincantieri for the construction of four new ships by 2020 in the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone and Marghera.

"We are pleased to continue our long-standing strategic partnership with Fincantieri. This new investment will bring jobs and benefits the entire country. As happened for Costa Diadema, the last ship in the Costa fleet built by Fincantieri and symbol of the "best of Italy", also ships for Costa Asia will be designed with an innovative Italian design. In addition, this new agreement will allow us to continue to grow the cruise market in China, which will become the second largest market in the world at the end of this decade "- said Michael Thamm, CEO of Costa Group.

In 2006 Costa Group was the first cruise company to enter the Chinese market. Currently there are three ships positioned throughout the year in China and Asia: Costa Atlantica, Costa Victoria and Costa Serena. From April 2016 it will add a fourth ship, Costa Fortuna. Costa cruises are known in China as "Italy at Sea", because they offer guests a vacation experience in local style Italian and European, characterized by cooking, entertainment and hospitality of high quality. The company has 27,000 employees, who work on board ships and in 20 offices in 14 countries.