Deployment of World's First Hydrogen Tanker Delayed

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd expects shipment of its first cargo of liquefied hydrogen from Australia to Japan could be delayed until the summer due to the pandemic, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

A A$500 million ($391 million) pilot project, led by Kawasaki Heavy and backed by the Japanese and Australian governments, planned to ship its first cargo of hydrogen extracted from brown coal in Australia's Victoria state this month or spring.

The shipment would be on the world's first dedicated hydrogen carrier, Kawasaki Heavy's Suiso Frontier.

"Suiso Frontier uses some foreign companies' equipment and their engineers need to come to Japan to check whether the equipment is properly installed. But they have not been able to travel due to the pandemic," the spokesman said.

"We can't say how long the demonstration trip will be delayed due to uncertainty over the pandemic," he said, adding that the departure of the carrier from Japan for Australia could happen in or after the spring.

There is no other technical problem, he said.

($1 = 1.2778 Australian dollars)