Seto News

A crew member of a Japanese cargo ship was feared dead on Sunday after he was recovered near a vessel that had capsized and sunk following a collision in domestic waters, local media reported.Japanese coast guard ships and aircraft have been searching since Friday for three missing crew members of the cargo ship after the collision with a Marshall Islands-registered tanker in the Seto Inland Sea.Public broadcaster NHK said the coast guard found the crew member in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest on Sunday morning near the sunk vessel.The Japanese coast guard was not immediately reachable by phone on Sunday.Japan's Transport Safety Board is conducting an investigation on board the chemical tanker…

Japanese coast guard ships and aircraft were searching on Friday for three missing crew of a cargo ship that capsized and sank after a collision with a Marshall Islands-registered tanker in the Seto Inland Sea, authorities said.The Byakko sank at about 2:40 a.m.

Japanese shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and its subsidiary Ferry Sunflower Limited have unveiled plans to construct Japan’s first two LNG-fueled ferries.Mitsubishi Shipbuilding will receive the order for the newbuild ferries that are designated to serve the Japanese market.Ferry Sunflower will charter the ferries after delivery and launch them on its Osaka-Beppu route from the end of 2022 through the first half of 2023, as replacements for vessels currently in service.The ferries will be equipped with high-performance dual fuel engines  and will provide passengers with comfortable accommodations and reliable schedules. What's more…

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a Group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) based in Yokohama, held a christening and launch ceremony on August 2 for a ferry currently under construction for Hankyu Ferry Co., Ltd., which is based in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka. The new vessel, named "Settsu," will replace the superannuated "Yamato," one of four large ferries operated by the company. After completion of rigging work, the "Settsu" will be handed over in February 2020 to…

The capacity for Intelligent Awareness and machine learning technologies to significantly improve navigational safety has been verified by Rolls-Royce and Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL), following the success of a pilot project aboard a 165m passenger ferry, Sunflower Gold.Results from sea trials on the vessel, which operates night-time sailings between Kobe and Oita, Japan, found that the navigating officers were able to visually detect objects that would otherwise have been cloaked by the blackness of night.The vessel navigates the Akashi Kaikyo…

Rolls-Royce has unveiled a sophisticated situational awareness system that fuses multiple sensors with intelligent software to mitigate against the safety risks navigators face when operating vessels at night, in adverse weather conditions or in congested waterways. Officially introduced today during the Seatrade Cruise Global event in Fort Lauderdale, USA, the Rolls-Royce Intelligent Awareness (IA) system is the first of its kind to be made commercially available that uses data collection to enhance navigational safety and operational efficiency. Iiro Lindborg, Rolls-Royce, General Manager, Remote & Autonomous Operations, said: “The IA system forms part of our ongoing development of the autonomous ship…

The maritime industry increasingly moves towards autonomy, and Rolls-Royce has been a major driver of the initiative globally. Today Rolls-Royce announced a deal with Japanese multi-modal transport company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), to collaborate in the development of its intelligent awareness system. Specifically the intitiative will be trialled onboard the 165-m passenger ferry Sunflower, owned and operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines’ subsidiary company, which makes the 222-nautical mile run between Kobe and Oita via the Akashi Kaikyo, Bisan Seto and Kurushima Straits.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has announced the company's decision to build an LNG-fueled tugboat. The new tugboat, the first LNG-fueled tug in Japan, will conform to the IGF code issued in January of this year and is subject to be examined by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. MOL will own the tugboat, slated for construction at Kanagawa Dockyard. Yanmar Co will supply LNG-fueled engines. Osaka Gas will supply LNG fuel to the tugboat. Nihon Tug-Boat will operate the tugboat. The new tugboat will be deployed in Osaka Bay in April 2019. It will be equipped with high-performance dual fuel engines that allows high-speed operation and superior environmental performance…

The fleet of diesel-electric Terex Gottwald mobile harbour cranes in Japan continues to grow. In spring 2017, Terex Port Solutions (TPS) will supply a Model 2 crane to the Port of Otake in the south of the country. There, the machine in the G HMK 2204 two-rope variant ordered via Chikuho Seisakusho Co., Ltd. (CS) will handle mainly containers and general cargo. For this purpose, the new crane has a lifting capacity curve adapted to Japanese requirements with a maximum lifting capacity of 62 t, an outreach of up to 40 m and a maximum lifting speed of 85 m/min. The machine is also equipped with a second, specially developed load display in order to meet the relevant requirements for the safe load indicator in the Japanese market.

During the second half of the 20th century, the Japanese ruled commercial shipbuilding. Today, numerous competitive forces in the Far East, led by South Korea and China, have continued to throw massive resources into building and maintaining modern shipbuilding dominance, so much so that it may seem as though the days of Japanese shipbuilding have passed for good. “Any single shipbuilder in Japan cannot fulfill a large-scale order, for example, for 10 ships,” an industry official told the Japan Times last September. Imabari Shipbuilding disagrees.

A Pacific storm pounded Southern California with heavy rain and high winds on Friday, triggering a small tornado, flash floods and mudslides that prompted the evacuation of hundreds of homes, damaged dozens of others and disrupted passenger rail services along the coast. One person was found dead on Friday in a rain-swollen flood-control channel in the Orange County town of Garden Grove, which could mark the third storm-related fatality on the West Coast since Thursday. Separately, rescue teams saved two people after they were swept away in the fast-moving Los Angeles River near a homeless encampment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in Twitter messages.

Listed are vessel sales for October 2013 as prepared by Shipping Intelligence, Inc., New York. 10/14/13 - C.P.

Classification society ClassNK has announced that it will reorganize its Board of Directors as part of a larger corporate reorganization, effective July 1, 2011. As part of the reorganization, ClassNK’s four current Managing Directors -- Shosuke Kakubari, Koichi Fujiwara, Takuya Yoneya, and Yasushi Nakamura -- will be promoted to Executive Vice Presidents and take up positions alongside current Executive Vice Presidents Hiroshige Kitada and Toshitomo Matsui. In addition to the promotion of the four executives, ClassNK will also establish a new second tier of Operating Officers who will oversee the day to day operations of the 110 year old classification society. ClassNK General Affairs Department General Manager T. Agata, Finance Department General Manager M.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL, President: Koichi Muto) today announced the completion of a table top drill based on the scenario of the MOL-owned and operated bulk carrier Mona Linden being involved in a collision that resulted in flooding and oil spill off Takamatsu, Inland sea, Japan. The drill involved about 60 participants including executives from MOL and MOL Group companies. The three-hour drill, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 19, was aimed at strengthening MOL's…

Two students from Maine Maritime Academy’s Corning School of Ocean Studies will travel to Japan this spring to take part in a conference on the ocean environment. Heather Blankenstein, a junior from Merrimack, N.H., and Robert Watts, a junior from Boothbay Harbor, Maine, will represent MMA at the April 5-30 International Marine Environment Symposium in Kobe, Japan. They will attend lectures, participate in discussion groups, and engage in field study aboard the training ship Fukae Maru, which operates in the Seto Inland Sea. Blankenstein and Watts were selected by Prof. Barry Kilch and other members of the Maine Maritime Academy’s ocean studies department. Alternates are Renee Dunton, a senior from Hampden, Maine; and Carl Rhodes, a junior from Bayfield, Colo.

According to AFP, the Suez Canal was blocked for three hours Saturday by a cargo ship which broke down in Egypt's economically vital waterway, an official of the canal's authority said. He told AFP that traffic was halted when Red Seto, a Panama-flagged ship loaded with 41,000 tons of goods, had mechanical problems near Suez on its way south to the Red Sea. Tugboats were sent to move the cargo ship, as a line of at least eight other vessels built up behind the Red Seto. The Suez is the third largest source of foreign revenue for Egypt after tourism and remittances from workers abroad. Source: AFP

The company SETO has ordered three giant new container gantry cranes from the Chinese group ZPMC to be installed at the future MSC/TN terminal at Port 2000, the new container facility under construction at the Port of Le Havre. SETO is a partnership between the shipping line Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and stevedoring company Terminaux de Normandie (TN), created to secure the necessary investment for shipping development at Le Havre. According to a company statement, SETO's investments to date for straddle carriers, mobile cranes and gantry cranes have surpassed ?32 million (US$31.3 million). SETO has also taken options on the purchase of seven additional cranes.