MSC Cruises announced the expansion of its fleet with a fourth cruise ship order by the company. With three ships being simultaneously built in the shipyard at Saint Nazaire, the world’s largest privately owned cruise line announced the order of the fifth Meraviglia class vessel. The new order signed by MSC and STX France will be adding a 900 million euros investment from nearly 11,000 million already announced by the shipping company in its ten-year investment plan.

Last year MSC Cruises reached two million cruise passengers, with a fleet of 15 ultramodern, highly innovative cruise ships. By 2026 they will have a total of 25 cruise ships, expected to reach five million passengers annually. The most advanced in the works is the MSC Bellisima, with the delivery date February 2019. Another cruise ship under construction is the MSC Grandiosa, the first mega cruise ship for MSC with capacity for 6,334 passengers and one of the two largest ever built for a European cruise line. The coin ceremony of this ship took place and the steel cutting of the fourth ship of the Meraviglia class was also carried out, in which MSC Cruises announced that the ship will be called MSC Virtuosa.