Japan building new shipyard

Minaminippon Shipbuilding is planning to open by April 2008 a new shipyard able to build 100,000 DWT tankers on land to be purchased in Oita Prefecture’s waterfront industrial belt. The company will also build a repair dock at the new facility and expand an existing shipyard elsewhere in Oita in order to meet the growing demand for new ships.

This will be the first shipyard to be constructed in Japan since 2000 when Imabari Shipbuilding Co. completed a major facility in Ehime Prefecture. The shipbuilder will spend $120 million on the capital investment and the project is set to raise Minaminippon?s output to eight vessels per year by fiscal 2011 through March 2012 from the current five. According to a company estimate, this should raise annual sales to $358 million, up from $162 million in fiscal 2005.