Japan: Jointly Owned LNG Vessel Named

On September 17, a naming ceremony was held at the Sakaide shipyard of Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation for an LNG vessel being built for joint owners NYK; CPC Corporation, Taiwan (CPC); and Mitsui & Co. Ltd.

Wanda Wang, director of the Department of Finance at CPC; Fuminobu Kawashima, executive managing officer at Mitsui & Co. Ltd.; Tomokazu Taniguchi, chairman of the board and representative director at Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation; and Yasushi Yamawaki, executive vice-chairman at NYK; attended the ceremony, and his wife named the vessel Taitar No. 4 before cutting the ceremonial rope holding the vessel in place.

Taitar No. 4 is jointly owned by CPC (45%), NYK (27.5%), and Mitsui (27.5%), and will be completed by October 1, 2010. The vessel is the fourth of four sister ships, and will soon join sisters Taitar No. 1, Taitar No. 2, and Taitar No. 3 for the shipment of about 3 million tons of LNG from Qatar to Taiwan under long-term contracts of 23 to 24 years each.

More attention is being given to clean-energy LNG in response to growing environmental concerns, and NYK continues to provide services that meet the expanding demand for stable, economical transport of LNG.

Vessel Particulars

Cargo capacity: 145,333 m3; Length overall: 289.50 meters;  Breadth: 49.00 meters; Gross tonnage: 118,634 tons; Builder: Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation;

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Source: Nippon Yusen Kaisha, September 23, 2010