Nagasaki Prefecture News

Japan's industry and land ministries on Wednesday picked three consortia, including one featuring Germany's RWE and its partners, to operate offshore wind farms in the second round of a public auction. They said they would award a fourth wind farm that was part of the tender at a later date.The results of the second major round under a new law to promote wind power were closely watched by energy companies at home and abroad, after the first round was dominated by Mitsubishi Corp.Japan's…

The Costa Atlantica cruise ship, which docked in southern Japan with over 100 crew members testing positive for COVID-19, has left the country and is en route to the Philippines, local government officials said on Monday.The ship departed Nagasaki on Sunday over a month after it became the second virus-stricken cruise ship to dock in Japan. Lax control on the movement of crew whilst docked highlighted Japan’s patchy response to the pandemic.The 86,000 tonne Costa Atlantica docked for maintenance in late April carrying no passengers and 623 crew, most of whom were eventually quarantined inside the ship after 149 tested positive.Six remain hospitalised in a non-life-threatening condition…

Seven days before Japan quarantined a cruise ship near Tokyo early this year, in what became one of the first coronavirus hot spots outside China, another cruise ship docked in southern Japan.For the next five weeks, as the virus took hold in Japan and the Diamond Princess in Yokohama port grabbed global attention, the Japanese authorities issued no warnings to the Costa Atlantica 1,200 km (750 miles) to the southwest.Passengers from the Yokohama ship were dying while people from the other vessel freely got on and off…

Nearly 50 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked for repairs in Japan's Nagasaki have tested positive for the new coronavirus, raising concern about the strain on the city's hospitals if conditions worsen for those infected. Results on Thursday showed 14 more aboard, all either cooks or those serving food, were infected with the virus, an official in Nagasaki prefecture said. One patient who had been taken to hospital previously was now in serious condition and on a ventilator, he told a live-streamed news conference.

More than 30 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked for repairs in Japan's Nagasaki prefecture have tested positive for the new coronavirus, raising concern about the impact on the local community.The cluster of infections found on board the Costa Atlantica follows the case of the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama two months ago, where more than 700 were found to be infected, although this time only crew members were on board.The Costa Cruises-operated ship was taken into a shipyard in Nagasaki city…

Japanese shipping giant Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) Group has provided support to a project being conducted by maritime volunteers in the town of Pembroke, which is south of Wales, to return ginkgo saplings linked to Admiral Togo, one of Japan’s greatest naval heroes.Yusen Logistics Co. Ltd. has provided free transport from Britain, and a ceremony for receiving the saplings was held at the Hiroshima Botanical Garden in Japan on December 24.In the 1870s, the Japanese government donated the ginkgo tree to Britain, where Togo was furthering his naval studies, and the tree was planted in the yard of his dormitory. The tree has always been locally known to be linked to Togo…

According to a report in JIJI Press, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries  is considering selling one of its largest shipbuilding plants in Japan to reduce costs.According to the report , the Japanese conglomerate is weighing the sale of the Koyagi plant in the southwestern city of Nagasaki to Oshima Shipbuilding Co., the third biggest shipbuilder in the country.With the sale, Mitsubishi Heavy would effectively withdraw from construction of large vessels carrying resources such as liquefied natural gas. The Koyagi plant, founded in 1972, stopped building liquefied natural gas vessels in September this year and now focuses on LPG ships.Nikkei reported that while shipbuilders in South Korea and China make moves to realign…

Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has announced that the new scrubber-equipped wood chip carrier Southern Treasure has been delivered.The delivery ceremony for the 60,300 dwt vessel with with a cargo capacity of 4.3 million-cubic feet was held at Oshima Shipbuilding, Nagasaki Prefecture.MOL will operate the vessel, which transport wood chips for Hokuetsu Corporation, said a press release."The vessel is equipped with a SOx scrubber and Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) to comply with today's stricter environmental regulations," said the release.It features Oshima Shipbuilding's technologies such as Seaworthy Bow (a bow shape that reduces the decline in vessel speed during adverse weather)…

New York City-based privately-held, family-run shipping company announced that it has taken delivery of a new 85,004 metric tons deadweight post-Panamax bulk carrier, the M/V Ting May. American dry bulk shipping company informed that the ship builds upon Foremost Group's tradition of operating a fleet of modern, environmentally-friendly ships built to the company's stringent specifications.This newest Eco-friendly post-Panamax ship will be immediately put in service for Bunge Limited, the ship’s charterer, which will deploy the ship to transport its dry-bulk cargoes to ports around the world according to its requirements.Consistent with industry practice in which the overwhelming majority of dry bulk ships are built in Asia…

Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) has taken delivery of a coal carrier equipped with a binary cycle power-generation system that utilizes engine exhaust heat.The new coal carrier Pirika Mosiri Maru that NYK will own and operate to transport coal for Hokkaido Electric Power(HEPCO), was delivered yesterday (January 23) at Oshima Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. in Saikai city, Nagasaki prefecture, and a delivery ceremony was held on the same day.The event was attended by Akihiko Mayumi, president and director of HEPCO and NYK president Tadaaki Naito, among others.Pirika Mosiri Maru, as the third generation ship, will take on the mission that has been handed down from the first-generation vessel named Sapporo Maru which was delivered in 1984 as HEPCO’s first coal ship…

A new coal carrier Noshiro Maru was delivered on September 30 at Oshima Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. in Saikai city, Nagasaki prefecture. A delivery and naming ceremony was held at the shipyard on the same day and attended by Makoto Kaiwa, chairman of Tohoku Electric Power; his wife; and NYK Chairman Yasumi Kudo. The new ship is the third to take the name Noshiro Maru, the first of which began transporting coal for Tohoku Electric Power Co. Inc. 23 years ago. The vessel is named after Noshiro terminal in Akita prefecture, the destination for coal that is transported mainly from Australia and Indonesia to generate electricity for the Tohoku district of Japan.

On January 15, a new coal carrier, Shin Sekiyo, was delivered at Oshima Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. (Saikai city, Nagasaki prefecture). A delivery and naming ceremony was held at the shipyard on the same day and attended by NYK chairman Yasumi Kudo and representatives from Chugoku Electric Power Co. Inc. Shin Sekiyo is the successor to the first Sekiyo operated by NYK. After delivery, the ship will be assigned to transport coal mainly from Australia and Indonesia to power plants operated by Chugoku Electric Power. Compared to the standard 70,000-ton Panamax bulk carrier, Shin Sekiyo has a wider beam and a shallower draft, improving transportation efficiency to ports having a limited water depth.

On September 25, a new 100,000 deadweight tonnage coal carrier ordered by NYK Bulkship (Asia) Pte. Ltd., an NYK Group subsidiary company based in Singapore, was delivered at Oshima Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. (Saikai city, Nagasaki prefecture). A delivery and naming ceremony was held at the shipyard on the same day and attended by NYK senior managing corporate officer Masahiro Samitsu and representatives from Chubu Electric Power Co. Inc. Tenryu Maru is the first coal carrier to be jointly owned by a power company and a shipping company. After delivery, the ship will be assigned to transport coal mainly from Australia and Indonesia to power plants operated by Chubu Electric Power.

Kyodo News Service reported that two former executives of Sasebo Heavy Industries Co. received suspended prison sentences for their role in defrauding the government millions in grants by falsely claiming the shipbuilding firm had retrained employees. Arifumi Himeno quit as president of the company upon his arrest last summer. He was sentenced to a three-year prison term. Yukio Mizuhiro who was deputy director of the company's shipbuilding yard in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, was given a two-year term. Both terms suspended for three years.