The shipping company in moves towards '90 LNG-fueled Vessels by 2030' goal
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Takeshi Hashimoto) on May 9 announced that it reached an agreement with Nihon Shipyard Co., Ltd. (President: Yoshinori Maeta; Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) and Shin Kurushima Dockyard Co., Ltd. (President: Tetsushi Soga; Headquarters: Imabari-shi, Ehime Prefecture) to build four 7,000-unit capacity car carriers that will use environment-friendly liquefied natural gas (LNG) as their main fuel. The vessels are the second series following four LNG-fueled car carriers, which are slated for delivery in 2024 (Note 1).
The newly ordered ships are scheduled for delivery in succession, through 2024 to 2025. This will bring the company's total orders for LNG-fueled car carriers to eight. Compared to conventional marine fuel oil, LNG is expected to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) which is a greenhouse gas (GHG), by about 25%-30% and sulfur oxide (SOx) by 100%.
In June 2021, MOL established "MOL Group Environmental Vision 2.1" as a guide to achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2050. The company plans to launch about 90 LNG-fueled vessels by 2030, under its strategy calling for "Adoption of Clean Alternative Fuels" (Fig.1) to achieve that target.
MOL continues to accelerate its initiatives on adoption of clean alternative fuels for vessels including the building of additional LNG-fueled car carriers, other LNG-fueled vessel projects (Note 2) in which the MOL Group has engaged, bio fuel(Note 3) and research on the use of ammonia etc., and is committed to reducing its GHG emissions.
MOL strives to become the company of choice for various stakeholders by delivering new value, specifically, zero-emission transport of completed cars.