DATE: Wednesday, October 22, 1997           TAG: 9710220569

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D3   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   18 lines

ONLY U.S.-FLAG CRUISE LINE TO BUILD TWO SHIPS

American Hawaii Cruises says it plans to build two cruise ships in the next eight years. The U.S.-flag line operates the cruise ship Independence in the Hawaiian islands. The ships will be built in U.S. shipyards at a cost of about $400 million each. Only a handful of U.S. shipyards are capable of building cruise ships, including Newport News Shipbuilding. The big Peninsula shipyard has expressed some interest in building cruise ships, but is wary about commercial ship construction having lost about $160 million on nine petroleum product tankers it is building. Newport News also got into a big dispute with American Hawaii Cruises over the overhaul of the Independence a few years ago.

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