Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has won a contract from Britain's Cunard Line to build a new luxury liner called the Queen Elizabeth.
The new 2,092-passenger ocean liner will be built at Fincantieri's Monfalcone yard in the northeastern Italian port of Gorizia at a cost of approximately 500 million euros.
The new Queen Elizabeth will be the second largest vessel that Cunard has ever built. It is scheduled to enter service in the autumn of 2010.
The name of the liner, which has been approved by Buckingham Palace, recalls the ocean liner which sailed the Atlantic for Cunard from 1938 to 1968. When it was built, the first Queen Elizabeth was the biggest liner in the world.
At the end of November, Fincantieri will present Cunard with another giant cruise ship, the 90,000-ton Queen Victoria, which will carry 2,000 passengers.
"We are honoured to have been chosen to build the Queen Elizabeth and to continue the tradition and heritage of this great company," said Giuseppe Bono, Fincantieri's Chief Executive Officer.
Cunard already owns and operates the two most famous ocean liners in the world, Queen Elizabeth 2 and Queen Mary 2, which were built in Scotland and France.
Since 1990 Fincantieri has built 41 cruise ships. Including the Queen Elizabeth, it now has 16 ships under construction.
