Nkk Corp News

NKK Corp., a major Japanese steelmaker and shipbuilder, and Hitachi Zosen Corp., another major Japanese shipbuilder, will study the feasibility of cooperating in shipbuilding to strengthen competitiveness in a tough global market. The two companies will consider cooperating in sales, design, procurement and manufacturing, they said. In March, NKK said it was considering an alliance with Hitachi Zosen to try to revive its flagging shipbuilding operations.

Leading Japanese steel maker NKK Corp. and major heavy machinery and engineering firm Hitachi Zosen Corp. will consolidate their shipbuilding operations. The move, which would result in combined sales of $1.3 billion - the second largest in Japan's shipbuilding business - is likely to accelerate reorganization in the depressed industry.

For the year 2000, Wärtsilä Corporation reports that 24 Sulzer RTA84T low-speed diesel engines with an aggregate power output of 713.4 MW (970,800 bhp) have been ordered for installation in very large tankers contracted at shipyards in China, Japan and South Korea. The engines will all be built by licensees of Wärtsilä in Japan and Korea. Altogether there are now 78 Sulzer RTA84T engines (including the -B and -D versions) delivered or on order, with a combined output of 2,171.9 MW (2.95 million bhp). Ten 305,000 dwt oil tankers recently contracted in China and South Korea by National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC) will each be propelled by a seven-cylinder Sulzer RTA84T-B low-speed diesel engine.

NKK Corp. has developed an ax-shaped bow that allows a reported 20 to 30 percent reduction in ships' sea margin compared with conventional bows. The company will fit the new bow to a 172,000-dwt Capesize bulk carrier which is currently under construction at the yard's Tsu Works, being built for Mitsui OSK Lines. As ship operators increasingly demand more efficient operation, particularly under rough conditions, NKK decided to focus on how to reduce a ship's resistance on the bow above the still water surface. In 1996, teaming with Osaka University marine engineering researchers, the company developed a sharp-edged bow, which proved effective in cutting through waves and reducing sea margin.

Japan's second-largest steelmaker, NKK Corp agreed with two other Japanese firms to consider future integration of their steel plant operations in a bid to combat severe competition. The alliance with heavy electric machinery maker Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. and heavy machinery maker Hitachi Zosen Corp. was prompted partly by the emergence of giant overseas rivals, the three companies said. As the first step of the alliance, the companies will set up a joint venture in March, capitalized at $1.74 million, for sales of a variety of heavy machines used in the steel-making process to the domestic and overseas markets. The new company, which plans to launch operations in April, will be owned 34 percent by NKK, 33 percent by Sumitomo Heavy and 33 percent by Hitachi Zosen.

Japanese shipbuilder Hitachi Zosen Corp and steelmaker NKK Corp. agreed to merge their shipbuilding operations into a single company on October 1, 2002. The move, which will result in Japan's second-biggest shipmaker after Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., is aimed at coping with increasingly harsh global competition by reducing production costs and speeding up product development. It comes as a growing number of Japanese companies are forming alliances in the shipbuilding industry to compete with South Korean rivals, which are benefiting from low manufacturing costs and the weakened won. The news boosted shares of both companies. NKK surged 9.52 percent to close at 92 yen, its highest price for the business year to March, while Hitachi Zosen jumped 4.49 percent to 93 yen.

According to a report from the Kyodo News Service, eight shipbuilders were warned by the government's competition policy watchdog over alleged bid rigging on defense contracts. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it issued the warning over what it deems were acts to unfairly restrict competition for contracts from the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) concerning the force's fleet between fiscal 1996 and fiscal 1999. The eight are Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd., Hakodate Dock Co., Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., NKK Corp., Sasebo Heavy Industries Co. and Hitachi Zosen Corp.

NKK Corp. has delivered the 172,559DWT bulk carrier, Cape Salvia, to its owner Pinos Maritime S.A. of Panama. The bulk carrier is the ship of designed with the Ax-bow developed by NKK, which is effective to reduce the sea margin. The Ax-Bow allows 20-30 percent reduction in ship’s sea margin compared with the conventional bow. The Ax-Bow is a sharp-edged bow shape above the waterline. This is effective in cutting through the waves, and decreases the sea margin, or engine output is maintained constant ship speed in rough sea. The Ax-Bow, therefore, is expected to be more effective to full hull form ships like bulk carriers and tankers.

JFE Holdings Inc. is considering taking over Hitachi Zosen Corp.'s shipbuilding operations, which are now conducted by Universal Shipbuilding Corp., a joint venture between the two firms, sources said Saturday. The deal would mark Osaka-based Hitachi Zosen's effective departure from shipbuilding. It will instead concentrate on its mainline environment equipment and plants business to try to bolster profitability, the sources said. The acquisition is expected to accelerate reconfiguration of the domestic shipbuilding industry. Demand for shipbuilding has increased amid the strong global economy. However, domestic shipbuilders face cutthroat competition with South Korean and Chinese rivals as well as deteriorating profitability due to rising materials costs.

Builder NKK Corp. NKK Corp. delivered a 300,000-dwt., Panamanian-flagged, Malacca-max oil tanker to Aquamarine Ship-holding Maritime S.A., a Panamanian subsidiary of NYK Line in September 2002. Built at NKK's Tsu Works, the tanker, which is now in regular service for Nippon Oil Corp., is the first in the Malacca-max VLCC (very large crude carrier) class that NKK has developed in response to owners' requirements for maximum operational efficiency. Measuring 1,092 x 197 x 97 ft. (333 x 60 x 29.6 m) with a 68 ft. (20.8-m) draft, realizing the maximum permissible dimension to sail through the Strait of Malacca. The ship incorporates the latest energy-saving technologies and designs, including a sharp-edged Ax-Bow that greatly reduces wave resistance under rough sea conditions.

Considerable effort, particularly following the oil embargo of the 1970s, has been placed on reducing the fuel oil consumption of ships, a task readily handled by a series of improvements in hull shapes, the fitting of energy savings devices, and improvements to the performance of main engines. A group of engineers from the Tsu Research Laboratories — Koichiro Matsumoto, Kazuyoshi Hirota and Kenji Takagishi - however, noted that while performance in still water was gaining, other factors, namely wave resistance was taking its toll. Thus a study was launched to develop new ship shapes in order to reduce the resistance increase due to waves, in order to lower sea margin. NKK Corp.

In order to help negotiate its pending merger with Kawasaki Steel Corp., NKK Corp., has called upon Goldman Sachs Group Inc., while Kawasaki has reportedly hired Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to help with negotiations regarding the possible business transaction. Earlier this year, the same two advisers were hired by Mitsui Chemicals Inc. and Sumitomo Chemical Co. to help negotiate the union of those two businesses, which will form the world's fifth-biggest chemical company. A value for the steel and chemical mergers will be determined when the parties hammer out a ratio for their share swaps, likely to be later this year, the paper said. The transactions are likely to be two of the biggest deals this year. Together they are reportedly valued at as much as $30 billion including debt.

NKK Corp. of Japan has formulated a new type of steel pipe containing one percent chromium, offering exceptional corrosion and wear resistance and weldability for use as cargo oil pipes on oil tankers. According to an NKK spokesman, advantages of the new product called NK-Marine Cop include: easy on-site welding without pre-heat treatment resulting from low carbon base steel, lowered construction and maintenance costs, and availability from small diameter seamless to large diameter welded pipes.