NYK, Van Oord Jointly Enter Japanese Offshore Wind Market

Japanese shipping giant Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) and Dutch maritime contracting company Van Oord have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly own and operate offshore wind installation vessels under the Japanese flag as the offshore wind market is rising in this country.

Image Courtesy: NYK/Van Oord

As informed, the partners aim to start operating a jack-up vessel in Japan by 2022 at the earliest.

The vessel will have a crane capacity of more than 1,000 mt and will be suitable to install the latest generation of wind turbines.

In response to the growing offshore wind market in Japan, a new law came into force in April 2019 that aims to facilitate the development of offshore wind projects in Japan. As a result, demand within the offshore wind market is expected to increase.

Specifically, the collaboration will make use of Van Oord’s technical and operational expertise in offshore wind and the NYK Group’s knowledge of the Japanese market as it has experience in reflagging vessels to and operating vessels under the Japanese flag. This is a requirement for offshore wind contractors when working in Japanese territorial waters.

In addition to the collaboration on offshore installation vessels, NYK and Van Oord are also exploring opportunities to collaborate on other types of vessels required for the construction and operation of offshore wind farms.

Separately, NYK announced an MoU with Swedish Northern Offshore Group (NOG) for a crew transfer vessel business related to offshore wind power generation. The two companies will start a joint study of a new CTV service in en effort “to contribute to the success of offshore wind projects in Japan”.