Shimane Prefecture News

Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said Thursday that a naming ceremony was held for the next-generation coal carrier Energia Azalea at Namura Shipbuilding. The vessel will serve Chugoku Electric Power.The coal carrier is 234.92 meters long, 43 meters wide, has a draft of 20 meters, and has a deadweight tonnage of 99,965 tons.According to MOL, the name Energia Azalea is derived from the official city flower of Hamada-shi, Shimane Prefecture, home to Chugoku Electric Power’s Misumi Power Station…

Yamanishi Corp, located in Tsumami disaster zone, Miyagi Prefecture, launches its first ship 20 months after the destruction. A 695-ton training ship built by Yamanishi Corp. has been officially launched at the firm's shipyard in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. The disasters cost the company around ¥12 billion. With only ¥1.5 billion in subsidies from the government, the company managed to stay afloat with cooperation from shipbuilders in other parts of Japan, including firms in Shizuoka, Hyogo and Hiroshima prefectures, reports The Japan Times. Yamanishi was able to draw up a rehabilitation plan in February, under the government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan. The plan included a debt waiver of some ¥7.9 billion, covering 99 percent of the company's total debts.

Technical proposals for the shipment of natural gas under compression rather than in the refrigerated, liquefied state have surfaced from time to time over the years, but have received a lukewarm response from the marine industry. The considerable cost of the shipboard containment methodology has been a major stumbling block. Now, a Canadian engineering contractor has come up with an altogether more economic solution to the cargo carrying needs of compressed natural gas (CNG), and pitched at relatively short-distance sea transport applications. Instead of the prohibitively expensive pressure bottles that have earlier been central to CNG transport concepts…