MHI to use stronger steel

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) will build container ships using Nippon Steel Corp. steel plates with a tensile strength much stronger than plates used in commercial ships throughout the industry. The plates, which have a higher resistance to cracks but are thinner than the old plates, will enable Japan’s largest shipbuilder to build ships with a higher cargo capacity.

Kiichiro Masuda, Nippon Steel’s managing director in charge of the plate division said the company expects other shipbuilders around the world to show interest in the steel plates. Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy will consider supplying the plates to other companies, Masuda said. He declined to give pricing information for the plates.

The two companies, which jointly hold patents on the steel plate, also developed a welding method for the product. Akira Aoyagi, general manager for Mitsubishi Heavy’s ship and ocean engineering department, said at the news conference the company is currently building four container ships for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines using the plates from Nippon Steel.