Western Japan News

Japan’s first dual-fuel LNG bunkering vessel KEYS Azalea has completed its first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering in Western Japan.The vessel - owned and operated by KEYS Bunkering West Japan Corporation, a joint venture established by Kyushu Electric Power, NYK Line, Itochu Enex, and Saibu Gas - bunkered LNG for the car and truck carrier Daisy Leader 2 at the Port of HiroshimaKEYS Azalea was delivered to KEYS Bunkering West Japan Corporation earlier in April. It is equipped with a…

At least nine people were killed when a South Korean-flagged vessel capsized off Japan, South Korea's foreign ministry said on Thursday.Two South Korean nationals were among the dead, it said, adding that the Japanese coastguard had rescued an Indonesian crew member and that another member of the crew of 11 was missing.The ministry did not provide the name of the vessel.Public broadcaster NHK, citing the coastguard, reported on Wednesday that a South Korean-flagged chemical tanker had capsized off the coast of Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan…

A South Korean-flagged chemical tanker has capsized off the coast of Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan, with seven deaths confirmed, public broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday, citing the coastguard.The tanker, Keoyoung Sun, was anchored due to bad weather and requested assistance after 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday (2200 GMT on Tuesday), reporting the vessel was tilting over, NHK reported.The vessel had 11 crew aboard.

A South Korean-flagged chemical tanker has capsized off the coast of Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan, with operations to rescue the crew underway, public broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday, citing the Coast Guard.The tanker, Keoyoung Sun, requested assistance after 0700 local time (2200 GMT), reporting the vessel was tilting over, and had 11 crew onboard with four people rescued so far, NHK reported.(Reuters - Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

The Green Award Foundation has announced that eight ports managed by the Osaka Ports and Harbors Bureau have joined as new Incentive Providers, offering discounted port fees to Green Award certified vessels that call their ports.This expands The Green Award’s network to 47 ports incentivising safety and sustainability in shipping globally.Among the eight new Japanese ports are the Port of Sakai-Senboku and Port of Hannan, two major industrial ports situated in the Osaka Bay. With a long history as trading hubs…

On August 25, NYK was commissioned by a consortium comprising ENEOS Corporation, Electric Power Development (J-POWER), and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration to conduct a study on the marine transportation of liquefied carbon dioxide (CO2).The study is part of a fiscal 2023 feasibility study on advanced carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Japan.NYK will study the economics and feasibility of the technology for transporting by ship CO2 emitted in western Japan from ENEOS…

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group company based in Yokohama, today held a christening and launch ceremony for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering vessel, the first to operate in western Japan, built under contract for KEYS Bunkering West Japan Co., Ltd. The ceremony was conducted at the Enoura Plant at MHI's Shimonoseki Shipyard & Machinery Works in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The new vessel, christened KEYS Azalea, is scheduled for handover…

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co. signed a contract with KEYS Bunkering West Japan Co., Ltd. for construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering vessel, the first to operate in western Japan. The vessel will be built at the Enoura Plant at MHI’s Shimonoseki Shipyard & Machinery Works in Yamaguchi Prefecture, with completion and handover scheduled for March 2024.KEYS Bunkering West Japan is a joint venture company established in February 2022 to supply LNG fuel for ships in the Kyushu and Setouchi Regions…

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) and other Japan-based firms said on Tuesday that a pilot project to transport hydrogen produced from brown coal in Australia to Japan in the world's first liquefied hydrogen tanker had proven technically feasible.While hydrogen is widely touted as a fuel of the future with zero carbon emissions, it requires intensive energy input, with renewables to produce "green hydrogen". Critics say emissions from brown coal-derived hydrogen are twice that of natural gas.The A$500 million ($364 million) project…

Japan's crude steel output is expected to rise 1.9% in the January-March quarter from a year earlier, helped by a recovery in manufacturing including shipbuilding and machinery, its Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said last week.This would mark the fourth straight quarterly increase and bring annual output for the financial year to March 31 to 97.07 million tonnes, up 17% from a year earlier when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed production to the lowest in about 50 years.METI estimated crude steel output at 24.15 million tonnes for the three-month period…

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…

Domestic and international lenders are vying for a slice of Japan’s nascent offshore wind power sector, which is expected to provide as much as ¥3trn (US$29bn) in project financing opportunities, albeit at very low margins.Akita Offshore Wind completed the nation’s first fundraising for a major offshore wind project last month, raising ¥80bn to build wind turbines near two ports in western Japan.Auctions for sites off Japan's shores are due to kick off in April, and lenders are…

Japanese shipping giant Nippon Yusen (NYK) together with Kyushu Electric Power Co. Inc., Saibu Gas Co. Ltd., and The Chugoku Electric Power Co. Inc., successfully conducted a truck-to-ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering demonstration at the port of Kitakyushu.According to press release, this operation is the first LNG bunkering in the Setouchi and Kyushu areas of western Japan and advances the four companies’ discussions on the commercialization of a new business in the area.The LNG fuel was loaded onto a tank truck at the Hibiki LNG terminal in Kitakyushu city, trucked to a pier in the Asano district, and then supplied to the…

NYK Line has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kyushu Electric Power, Saibu Gas, and The Chugoku Electric Power for joint discussions on the commercialization of a new business to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a marine fuel to ships in the Setouchi and Kyushu areas of western Japan.This is the second LNG bunkering project NYK Line is engaged in after investing in an LNG bunkering vessel with "K" Line, Chubu Electric, and Toyota Tsusho Corporation."The demand for LNG as a marine fuel, a practical alternative to heavy fuel oil because of its relatively low emission of air polluting substances and greenhouse gases, is expected to increase after a global 0.5 percent sulphur cap is introduced in 2020.

A Chinese military ship entered the waters of south-western Japan on Wednesday, EFE news reported quoting government officials. This is the first such incident in over a decade and comes a week after a Chinese navy ship sailed near the disputed Senkaku islands. Ap reported Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko as saying that a Maritime Self-Defense Force plane spotted the ship in Japanese waters west of Kuchinoerabu island in southern Japan before dawn. The ship sailed out of Japan's waters about 90 minutes later. “The government will continue to take all possible measures for warning and surveillance activity for our territorial waters and airspace,” Seko said.

An explosion on oil tanker Shoko Maru off the coast of Japan set the vessel ablaze, severely injuring four crew while the captain remains missing, several sources reported. The blast occurred this morning while the 998-ton tanker was anchored roughly 3 miles off western Japan's port of Himeji, the Japanese coast guard said. Seven of the vessel’s eight crewmembers have been recovered and taken to the nearby hospitals, but the ship’s captain remains missing. Ships and aircraft were commissioned to fight the fire, which created a large hole in the vessel’s port side, causing it to tilt. Shoko Maru unloaded its fuel oil last Friday, government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told Reuters, minimizing fears of major environmental impacts. The vessel is owned by Shoho Shopping Co.

A fuel tanker has exploded in waters off Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, leaving the captain missing and four crew members badly injured, according to Xinhua. There were eight crew members on board, seven of them have been rescued, reports Xinhua, citing a local fire department source. The missing captain is 64- year-old Masaichi Ando. According to a Coast Guard official, the 988-ton vessel was anchored about two kilometers south of the Himeji Port, which lies 450 kilometers west of Tokyo. It had already unloaded heavy fuel oil at a port, but black smoke was seen billowing from the ship, up to 100-meter high. Source: Xinhua

's navy tracked a submarine that intruded into its waters for nearly two hours and then lost track of it without identifying its nationality, a military official said. The Naval vessel Atago spotted the submarine in Japanese waters at 6.56am (0756 AEST) but the craft did not raise a national flag or surface, breaching international laws, a defence ministry spokesman said. Atago, an Aegis-equipped warship, chased the submarine off the coast of Kochi prefecture in western Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean, until about 8.40am (0940 AEST) , he said. Using sonar, Atago confirmed that the submarine does not belong to the Japanese navy nor its ally the US Navy, he said. It was the first time in four years that a foreign submarine had intruded into Japanese waters, according to the official.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is applying the Lloyd's Register Environmental Protection notation to four LNG ships under construction at its Nagasaki yard. This is the first time this stringent environmental standard has been applied to either LNG or Japanese built ships. Compliance with Lloyd’s Register’s Environmental Protection standard is voluntary. It is for the environmentally conscious owner who wants to manage environmental performance more effectively, and be able to demonstrate it. The notation promotes a standard of environmental performance beyond that covered by ISM and MARPOL, both in terms of design and the on-going operation of the ship.

Reuters reported that Nippon Steel Corp. that it would spend $170m to boost production capacity for high-grade shipbuilding plate at its Oita plant in western Japan by 600,000 tonnes a year. It would be the biggest investment in shipbuilding plates in 30 years for the world's second-biggest steel maker since it installed a shipbuilding plate line at the plant in 1977. The capacity increase is aimed to cope with higher demand for steel used in tankers and container ships, Nippon Steel said. The Oita plant is capable of producing 2.2 million tonnes a year of shipbuilding plates at present. A new machine to roll steel and a second line to cut plates will be introduced at the plant by the first half of 2009, the company said.