Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build one of four VLCCs ordered by the Navios group at Imabari Shipbuilding.
The move is the result of a cooperation pact drawn up by Japanese yard groups Mitsubishi, Imabari, Namura Shipbuilding and Oshima Shipbuilding in 2017.
The idea was that Mitsubishi would contribute its advanced design, technology and engineering skills, and build ships at the lower-cost facilities of its three partners.
However, as things have turned out, it is Imabari that is passing orders down to Mitsubishi.
Differing fortunes
The two yards have had contrasting fortunes in recent years.
Imabari has more than 130 orders on its books, including VLCCs, VLOCs and ultra large containerships, with its newbuilding docks full to the end of 2021.
However, the Navios VLCC, to be delivered in 2021, is the only vessel on order at Mitsubishi’s Koyagi shipyard in Nagasaki.
Its other Nagasaki yard has five ships on order, including four VLGCs and one 177,000-cbm LNG carrier, but will run out of orders in mid-2020.
In its business plan, Mitsubishi said it would no longer build standard merchant ships but would focus on more technically sophisticated vessels, such as gas carriers and passengerships.
However, its order drought has forced it to take an order for a VLCC, a vessel type it has not constructed in more than six years.
Mitsubishi has fallen on troubled times as it attempts to find a profitable sector in a changing shipbuilding scene.
Low-cost competition from China has priced it out of the market for most standard bulker and tanker types, while South Korea dominates the market for gas carriers.
An ill-fated attempt to become a luxury cruise shipbuilder ended with Mitsubishi running up more than $1.5bn in exceptional losses on a contract to build two vessels for AIDA Cruises.
Navios account
Clarksons lists the Mitsubishi VLCC as on the account of Navios Maritime Holdings, Navios Maritime Acquisition’s New York-listed parent.
Navios originally ordered the 310,000-dwt VLCCs at the end of 2018. Three are listed in the fleet of Navios Maritime Acquisition.
Two ships are understood to be heading for bareboat charter employment with Dubai's Al-Iraqia Shipping Services & Oil Trading under a long-term contract.
