Mitsui Kinkai, the short-sea subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines, has ordered three 17,500-dwt tweendeckers at Onomichi Dockyard to boost the environmental performance of its fleet.

The vessels meet the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) Phase III regulation for newbuildings.

They are also designed to reduce carbon emissions by 18% compared with Mitsui Kinkai’s current tweendecker fleet.

No price has been announced for the orders, which will be delivered in 2022 and 2023.

Mitsui Kinkai holds an option to convert the newbuildings to marine gas oil (MGO) mono-fuel engines to reduce sulphur and NOx emissions further.

Sustainable

Onomichi Shipbuilding, along with engine manufacturer J-Eng, are marketing MGO mono-fuel ships as an all-in-one solution to ship emission regulations.

Mitsui Kinkai said that order would help align its fleet with the sustainable development goals of its main customers.

It is understood the vessels will operate on the growing intra-Asia trades for biomass products such as wood pellets and palm kernel shell.

Mitsui Kinkai operates a fleet of 44 ships, including 24 tweendeckers. It specialises in carrying steel products, cement, industrial plant equipment and biomass on both a fixed schedule and tramp service.

In fiscal 2019 it reported sales of ¥24.8bn ($232m).

MOL earlier announced that from 1 April it is merging Mitsui Kinkai with its dry bulk business and woodchip carrier unit.

The merged company, MOL Drybulk, will operate a fleet of 200 vessels and will be headed by executive officer Kazuhiko Kikuchi.