PHOTO: Holland America Line's Statendam is one of two ships that will move to P&O Cruises (Australia) in late 2015. (Courtesy of Holland America Line)

First China, now Australia. Carnival Corp. is hell-bent on establishing dominance in the fast-growing cruise markets on the other side of the world.

Today the company announced that it will take two ships from the Holland America Line fleet and move them to P&O Cruises (Australia) for deployment Down Under in November 2015.

“By any measure, Australia is one of the top-performing cruise markets in the world, with an eye-popping average annual passenger growth rate of 20 percent over the past decade,” said Carnival CEO Arnold Donald. In fact, the number of Australians taking a cruise has increased 130 percent over the past five years and is projected to reach 1 million by 2016.

Carnival Corp. already is the largest cruise operator in Australia. The company saw the potential 10 years ago and based two full-time ships there. Now there are six — three with P&O Cruises, two with Princess Cruises and one under the Carnival Cruise Lines brand. With the two Holland America ships and the return of Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess next year, Carnival will have nine ships based in Australia year-round.

Carnival’s announcement comes a week after it revealed it would deploy four ships in Shanghai in 2015, increasing its cruise capacity in China by 140 percent over 2013. Its rival, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., also is staking a claim on the Chinese market with plans to base its splashy new 4,180-guest Quantum of the Seas in Shanghai in May 2015.

The sister ships being added to P&O Cruises — the 1,260-passenger Ryndam and Statendam — are similar to the three existing P&O ships in Australia named Pacific Dawn, Pacific Jewel and Pacific Pearl. The Holland America ships will be refurbished before moving to P&O and will get some features tailored for Australian and New Zealand passengers. Details will be announced in coming months.

Carnival Corp. noted in its press release that it will replace Holland America’s lost capacity with the new 2,660-passenger Pinnacle-class ship scheduled for delivery in February 2016.

The expansion overseas also underscores Carnival Corp.’s strategy of increased collaboration among its 10 brands, the company said. “Our ability to work among our brands to make strategic deployment decisions is a great example of our focus on leveraging our scale and increased collaboration,” Donald said.

Carnival Corp. ships sail from five Australian cities as well as Auckland, New Zealand. It bases even more ships in Australia-New Zealand seasonally during the summer — last season the company had a record 20 ships from seven brands sailing in Australian waters.

With a five-ship fleet, P&O Cruises will offer more short cruises, traditional voyages to the South Pacific and itineraries to new destinations such as Papua New Guinea and Asia.