Chantiers de l’Atlantique takes digital shipyard to new heights and chooses NAPA for hull design

(from left to right, front row): Laurent Castaing, CEO of Chantiers de l’Atlantique, and Mikko Kuosa, CEO of NAPA. Behind them: Guillaume Lagree (Technical Senior Vice President, Chantiers de l’Atlantique), Claire Baccard (Hull Technical Department Manager, Chantiers de l’Atlantique), Christophe Dutrieux (Chief Information Officer SVP, Chantiers de l’Atlantique), Mikko Forss (Executive Vice President, NAPA Design Solutions), and Joonas Kuusela (Senior Sales Manager, NAPA Design Solutions).

Leading shipyard selects NAPA to strengthen 3D-based workflows, innovation and efficiency in ship design, from the very early stage of hull design to production design. 

Helsinki (Finland) and Saint-Nazaire (France); 11 March 2025: Chantiers de l’Atlantique, one of the largest shipyards in Europe, has entered a collaborative agreement with NAPA, a global provider of maritime software and digital services, to enhance the efficiency of its hull design process by co-developing advanced 3D software and digital workflows.

The two companies will collaborate to digitalize and enhance the detail design processes at Chantiers de l’Atlantique using NAPA Steel, the industry-leading 3D structural design tool. By integrating NAPA Steel with a software used in the production design stage, the combined solution will enable teams of engineers and naval architects to communicate swiftly and work together from the basic design stage, with hull design and outfitting, through to production design. This helps manage growing design complexity and allows Chantiers de l’Atlantique to meet customers’ needs for efficient, safe and innovative vessels.

This digital leap is driven by the recognition that no software alone can meet all the needs of the design process, from the basic to production design. Tackling this challenge, Chantiers de l’Atlantique adopted a pragmatic, ‘best-of-breed’ approach. This is where enterprises can bring together different software to perform a particular function.

By bringing together engineers in charge of structures, propulsion, electrical, general arrangements and weight estimations, this collaboration helps ensure smooth coordination and optimal performance in shipbuilding projects where complex requirements and frequent changes demand agility and precision. Furthermore, through the interface between the NAPA 3D model and production design 3D model, the 3D models created by structural teams can be made available earlier to their colleagues in outfitting and production designs, thereby saving time and boosting efficiency.

The new deal follows a successful pilot that confirmed the potential of NAPA Steel to streamline ship design workflows, resulting in tangible time and cost savings. By strengthening the deployment of 3D-based design tools and integrated workflows, particularly in detail design, NAPA will help deliver greater efficiency, collaboration, and design quality.

The partnership with NAPA marks a new milestone in Chantiers de l’Atlantique’s “digital shipyard” strategy. Headquartered in Saint-Nazaire, the shipyard specializes in cruise and navy ships and offshore installations.

Laurent Castaing, CEO at Chantiers de l’Atlantique, said: “This collaboration with NAPA helps us raise the bar in building the next generation of safer, smarter and more efficient vessels. As a world leader in highly advanced vessels, such as cruise and navy ships and offshore installations, managing design complexity is business critical. This requires efficient and streamlined workflows throughout a vessel’s design and production phases. Using agile tools and digital processes is at the heart of this, enabling our teams to take innovation to the next level and respond to our customers’ needs for efficient and future-proof designs.”

Mikko Kuosa, CEO at NAPA, said: “It has been an exciting journey with Chantiers de l’Atlantique to take their digital shipyard vision to new heights. Co-developing a solution that makes greater use of 3D-based digital tools and workflows is the way forward for ship design, unlocking a new level of collaboration and efficiency. Today this is more important than ever, at a time when there is growing demand for innovative vessels to support shipping’s energy transition. The digital era gives shipyards a solid foundation to innovate, while also enhancing their own productivity to maintain strong businesses.”

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Notes to editors

About Chantiers de l’Atlantique

Thanks to the expertise of its teams and its network of subcontractors, associated with its first-rate industrial facilities, Chantiers de l’Atlantique is a key leader in the fields of design, integration, testing and turnkey delivery of cruise ships, naval vessels, electrical substations for offshore wind farms and services to the fleets. The company is at the core of the challenges of tomorrow, designing and building today ships whose environmental performance exceeds the most drastic standards, as well as equipment for offshore wind power that make it a major player in the energy transition.

About NAPA  
NAPA is a leading provider of software and digital services for the global maritime industry, harnessing data science to enable safer, more sustainable and future-proof shipping.

Founded in 1989 to provide smart solutions for ship design, NAPA is now the global reference in shipbuilding, with over 90% of new vessels built by NAPA customers. Today, the company’s expertise spans the entire lifecycle of a ship, from shipyards to operational safety and efficiency at sea. Over 3000 commercial ships globally sail with NAPA safety and efficiency solutions, which include digital ship stability systems that enable a proactive approach to safety at sea, cloud-based performance monitoring that delivers insights to unlock new operational efficiencies, and voyage optimization solutions that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from voyages.

Headquartered in Finland, NAPA employs 200 experts and operates globally, with a presence in Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, the USA, Germany, Greece, Romania and India.

For more information, visit www.napa.fi 

Media contact:
Boyoung Son
Head of Marketing and Communications, Design Solutions, NAPA
boyoung.son@napa.fi