A cruise ship and ferry outfitting firm based in Co. Down will announce today in Belfast Harbour that it has secured £120 million (€139m) of new work to fit out cruise ships.

The firm MJM Marine located in Newry, said the increase in business across a range of global clients including major cruise operators, will create more than 100 jobs.

The firm which this year celebrates its 40th anniverary, said that the new positions will increase the firm's workforce in the region of 300 people.

MJM will make the announcement in Belfast Harbour on board the 130,818 gross tonnage cruise ship, Celebrity Apex. The 2,910 (double occupancy) passenger cruiseship which is a Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Rated resort at sea, had sailed overnight from Liverpool.

Celebrity Apex is the second of the ‘Edge’ series cruise ships operated by Celebrity Cruises, which is a brand within the Royal Caribbean Group and is one of MJM Marine's trade partners.

The order book for MJM reaches across seven of the world's leading brands, with delivery taking place in locations across the world including Singapore, across Europe and to the Bahamas.

RTE News has more on the multi-million pound contract. 

Recent works Afloat adds of MJM Marine clients include Silversea’s Silver Wind, Carnival’s Radiance, Royal Caribbean International’s Wonder of the Seas and Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection’s inaugural vessel, Evrima.

Last year and again this season, Azamara Pursuit made a cruise visit to Warrenpoint Port, Co. Down where the MJM Marine headquarters is located in the Carnebane Bussiness Park, Newry, which was awarded a project to fit-out the 800 passenger cruise ship.

The work which was carried out had regional ties, as the Azamara Journey in 2018 docked at Harland & Wolff, Belfast which was then the largest ship of its kind to have a refit at the shipyard facility.

Newry ship refurbisher MJM Marine has told its staff that redundancies “in large numbers” are unavoidable after all future orders were postponed indefinitely amid the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

The Belfast Telegraph reports on an internal communication to staff yesterday (Tuesday 17 March), which said that one current project can be completed next month by a small number of staff — but there is no prospect of securing any new orders, potentially until 2022.

It added: “The consequence of the spread of Covid-19 and the steps that are being taken globally to arrest the spread of the virus have had a catastrophic impact upon businesses generally and I am afraid that this company is no exception.”

MJM Marine employs 270 staff across three European offices, with the majority at its Newry base in Northern Ireland.

#cruiseliners - Newry based firm MJM Marine, writes The Irish Times, has won its biggest contract to date for a “multimillion dollar” refit of a cruise liner that will involve a team of 1,400 people.

The company, which has its headquarters in the Co. Down city and has been in business for 35 years, has won the contract from Norwegian Cruise Line to completely refurbish its Norwegian Joy cruise ship as the company relocates the ship from Asia to the west coast of the United States

Norwegian Joy, which was the first cruise ship to feature a race track at sea, will cruise Alaska this summer after the refit.

For further reading on the contract click here.