Mitsui upgrades facilities at Chiba plant

Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding will be undertaking a major expansion of facilities at its Chiba site in the next few months. The work, which includes enlarging its steel processing plant and installing new cranes, is due to be completed in June 2005 at a total cost of $24.3 million.

The Japanese shipbuilder estimates that the new facilities will bring about a 50% increase in production capacity and the company is also confident that the introduction of the new highly-efficient steel processing facilities will alleviate the effects of recent steel price hikes. At present, the Chiba site comprises of three docks with dock number 2 employed exclusively for newbuilding while docks number 1 and 3 are used for repair and other activities.

Number 3 dock, the smallest at the site, will be converted and used for building small cargo vessels. Following this, facilities on dock number 1 will be improved and be used for newbuildings while, during the course of 2005, new cranes will be introduced for dock number 2 which will result in a reduction in average assembly time from 2.8 months to 2.3 months for a large tanker.

The steel processing plant and facilities for hull block assembly will be built on space gained by transferring non-shipbuilding activities to other locations, and are due to become operational when work on dock number 1 is completed. The new plant will be capable of processing 15,000 tonnes of steel per month, which is a 50% increase on the current level.