Page 26: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 1997)

FAR EAST UPDATE

Softening Yen

Provides Boost To

Japanese Builders

With regard to the

Japanese shipbuilding industry, price levels have become much more competitive the yen's sgftening against the JJVS. dollar.

The National Shipping

Co. jtif Saudi Arabia

INBCSA) took delivery of its fifth VLCC, named

Safaniyah, during early

January, from

Mitsubishi Heavy

Industries (MHI).

NKK's Tsu Shipyard has recently undergone an automation upgrade.

MHI has also delivered a new high-speed car ferry capable of cruising at 35 knots. The single- hulled, 1,500-grt ferry, measures 331.4 x 49 x 34-ft. (101 x 14.9 x 10.3-m), and has a capacity of 423 passengers and 106 vehicles. The followi-ftg' ' iTrst-^yessel was built at the

ShimonoSeki yard, and delivered to

Tokyo-based "ferry operator East to the microprocessor-based LAN

The scheme reflects the company'! bid to boost its newbuilding com petitiveness and productivity.

Three, 1,950-TEU cellular con- tainerships on order with Imabari

Shipbuilding are to be chartered by Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL). The three newbuildings, based on a self-sustainirfg 'design^ incorporat-

Japan Ferry for development on ipg two deck cranes, are due to be the Aomori and Hakodate service, completed between the second half

It can reportedly covering.km in just two hours.

Naikai Zosen Corp., an affiliate of

Hitachi Zosen, is to invest $13.8 million in new technology over the next two years at its Hiroshima yard. The project entails a 3-D computer-aided design and manu- facturing system, and an extension

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MOL is also to have sit 1,950-

TEU containerships built, con- tracted equally between 'Imabari and Minami Shipbuilding, with completion scheduled for the end of next year and early 1999./ The ves- sels, equipped with ttao deck cranes, will be deployed on the car- rier's Japan/Far Eiast/South

American east coast service under long-term charter contracts.

Two subsidiaries of Japanese shipbuilder Hitachi Zosen are to be merged after April 1. Tokyo-based

Hitachi Zosen Information

Systems will merge with Osaka- based Hitachi Zosen Computer.

Hitachi hopes the merged compa- ny, which will be capitalized at about $146 million, will better use management, personnel and tech- nological resources. The merged unit has sales targets of 20 billion yen its first year.

Japanese trading house Itochu

Corp. has ordered a 74,000-dwt

Panamax bulker from Imabari

Shipbuilding for use by the-1

Taiwan-based shipowner Kee Yeh

Maritime. The project re-estab- lishes a link the Taipei company,

Itochu and the Japanese yard forged nearly 12 years ago/ The latest contract, calling for delivery in May 1999, follows the comple- tion in April of a slightly smaller

Panamax unit for the/Itochu/Kee alliance. /

NKK Corp. has started work on a 2,050-grt research

Japan Fisher

Constituting a high! single-vessel project pr5 bulkers, crude carriers .•vessel for the

Agency, specialized, ction of

LNG tankers, the survey vessel ^ is intended as a replacement for the 13,630-grt Shoyo Maru. Following scheduled delivery in spring 1998, the vessel will be deployed in migratory fish research and ocean- ic environmental surveys around the world.

Japan's Sanko Steamship has confirmed an order for five 49,000- dwt, open-hatch, box-shaped dry bulk carriers with Namura

Shipbuilding in Osaka. Industry

Maritime Reporter/Engineering News