KHI Ends Mitsui Merger Talks (Japan)

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, a pioneer of MOSS type LNG carrier construction in Japan, said it had ended talks to merge with Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding and fired the company’s president, Satoshi Hasegawa.

Hasegawa had been involved in merger talks with Mitsui Engineering, Japan’s top maker of marine engines, and he will be replaced by the company’s Vice President Shigeru Murayama.

The integration would have created a giant in the shipbuilding industry, with combined consolidated sales of over $20 billion.