UACJ boosts aluminum production with increased LNG carriers demand

Rising LNG tanker demand got Japan’s UACJ to expand its aluminum sheets production, for the next year, by 50 percent.

Japan’s shipbuilders like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, IHI, Kawasaki Heavy and Hyundai Heavy Industries are all consumers of the rolled aluminum sheets produced by UACJ.

Makoto Yakata, general manager at UACJ’s sales planning department told Bloomberg that demand for aluminum products by the LNG shipbuilders has risen after the 2011 nuclear power plant disaster.

The company’s forecast for demand from LNG carriers has risen to 44,000 tons in 2015 with another increase to 56,000 tons in the fiscal year 2016.

One tanker uses 4,000 tons of aluminum sheets said Yakata, adding that it will make products for 30 LNG carriers through March 2017.

LNG World News Staff, September 22, 2014; Image: UACJ