China's first indigenous luxury cruise ship likely to sail in 2021

China's first indigenous luxury cruise ship is likely to sail in 2021,

According to the People's Daily and Caixin.com, the Italian ship building firm Fincantieri has signed an agreement with the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) to build five luxury cruise liners on a joint venture basis.

Sixty percent of the venture will belong to CSSC, while the remaining 40 percent will belong to Fincantieri.

Earlier information had said that the CSSC and the China Investment Corporation (CIC) had signed an agreement to establish a China-controlled joint venture with the world's largest cruise liner company, Carnival U.K., in Hong Kong on October 21, 2015, during President Xi Jinping's state visit to the U.K.

The agreement stated that the joint venture would use 2.6 billion pounds to build five luxury cruise liners. Caixin.com quoted one source, as saying that each ship would be 133,500 tons in full-load displacement and over 300 meters in length, and would carry around 5,000 passengers. Each ship will cost around five billion Yuan.

Capital for the ships will come from Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial Bank, China Everbright Bank and China Construction Bank.

Chinese cruise lovers reached 1.11 million last year, up 50 percent year-on-year. Last year was the first time the number has surpassed the one million mark, according to the 2015 China Cruise Industry Development Report.

As many as 4.5 million Chinese will go on cruises by 2020, meaning 40 cruise ships will homeport in China, the People's Daily quoted Wu Zhenglian, a cruise design expert with a research institute under CSSC Holdings, as saying.