In preparation for RCL's F4Q 2012 earnings on Monday, we’ve put together the recent pertinent forward looking company commentary.
- "The last few months of booking activity have been fairly stable. Our deployment has been adjusted slightly to accommodate for the stronger markets and the early order book for 2013 is encouraging. There are still challenges in Europe, especially Southern Europe, but solid demand from other regions appears to be more than offsetting this."
- [2nd Oasis] "We expect that any order would come at a lower cost per berth than either of the first two vessels and also that any order would include further advances in the energy efficient design."
- "With a mid-year delivery in 2016, our five-year capacity growth rate would still remain in the low-single digits at roughly 3%."
- "Currently, the fourth quarter sailings, our load factors are slightly below last year, but at slightly higher APDs. Caribbean itineraries, which account for 42% of our inventory in the fourth quarter, are showing the greatest strength. On the other hand, European itineraries, which account for 27% of our capacity, are forecasted to be down slightly."
- "Overall, 2013 capacity will increase 1.3% with the largest increases coming in the Asia-Pacific region. Our European exposure is being reduced by approximately 10%, and Europe will now account for 27% of our product offering. Caribbean will remain our largest itinerary group and will account for 44% of our deployment."
- "We are seeing a much more normalized booking curve from the North American market. Europe and particular Southern Europe has had a contracted booking curve. Northern Europe has actually had a pretty normal booking curve as we look out."
- [Onboard yield] "We saw some strength in gaming, in retail and in short excursions."
- [Overall fuel consumption] "We're in a fairly stable environment."
- "While the ECA came into effect on August 1 of 2012, it isn't really until 2015 that the very – much more significant burden of sulfur requirements kicks into effect. So while we are facing a somewhat extra burden of fuel costs because of the first stage of the ECA right now and that will continue through the end of 2014, it's really not significant in the scheme of things for us and, I think, for the industry in general. The question is really what more will happen as we approach 2015? Will the ECA regime stay exactly in a fact as it is, or will there be potentially some adjustments through political or legislative process."
- [2013 cost pressures] "I think we've talked about on the capital side that we are investing in IT and trying to upgrade a lot of our systems, both shore side and shipboard. Not all those expenses are capitalized, so we may feel some pressure there. I think we're looking at some modest increases in insurance, but I think they'll be manageable. We do have a number of revites, as Adam alluded to, over the next year, and there are costs that hit the P&L that come from there. And we're still evaluating things like food inflation and freight and whatnot. So there are some pockets of pressure, but again, I think we have pretty disciplined environment here that, hopefully, we can help keep this to a minimum.".
