On April 28, the domestic coal carrier Shiranami, ordered by NYK, was delivered at the Saiki Shipyard (Saiki City, Oita Prefecture) of Honda Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo).

A naming ceremony was attended by Sunao Nakamura, senior managing executive officer optimization business of JERA Co., Inc. (Chuo-ku, Tokyo; hereafter JERA); Nobuhiro Kashima, senior managing executive officer of NYK; and many other persons concerned.

The vessel is a sister ship of the domestic coastal coal carrier Ushio, which was delivered in July 2022. As part of the “2021 Support Project for R&D in Promoting Aggregation and Cooperation in the Maritime Industry“ *, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), new systems for the navigation and engine systems respectively were introduced on this vessel on a trial basis, with the aim of realizing crewed autonomous operation of ships.

-Navigation system: a navigation duty support function has been introduced to improve the reliability of information on surrounding vessel traffic by integrating visual information from cameras and various sensors, which is then used to formulate a navigation avoidance plan. In the future, demonstration tests will be carried out with the aim of further improving the safety of crewed autonomous navigation based on the results of these tests and the Ushio's operational data.
-Engine system: a unique system that utilizes the ship's engine shore-based management system and simulation technology. In addition to detecting engine anomalies, the system enables to estimate the cause of anomalies, thereby contributing to safe operation and reducing the workload of the crew.

Like the first vessel Ushio, the ship will be operated by the NYK affiliated company Asia Pacific Marine Corporation based on a transportation contract between JERA and NYK. The vessel will serve as secondary transportation of overseas-delivered coal from a relay station within Tokyo Bay to the Yokosuka Thermal Power Station. The ship is designed to be environment-friendly and includes a hatch cover that can be kept closed during discharging operation as a dust-prevention measure.

The NYK Group will provide new services that seamlessly link oceangoing shipping and domestic coastal shipping through the operation of this vessel and realize an efficient secondary transportation network within Tokyo Bay to contribute to stable energy transportation. The NYK Group also aims to solve social problems through technology in cooperation with affiliated companies, with a view to address issues that are expected to affect future domestic coastal shipping around Japan, such as a decrease in the number of seafarers and long working hours of seafarers.

* 2021 Support Project for R&D in Promoting Aggregation and Cooperation in the Maritime Industry
MLIT’s project started this fiscal year to support technology developments for strengthening the technological capabilities of the Japanese maritime industry. The project aims to facilitate shipyards and maritime equipment manufacturers in their coming together for work on next-generation ship technologies, to foster Japanese system integrators, to make the industry’s structural shift, and to further strengthen the technological capabilities.
(MLIT(Japanese): https://www.mlit.go.jp/report/press/kaiji07_hh_000201.html )

On March 10, 2023, the NYK Group released its medium-term management plan “Sail Green, Drive Transformations 2026 — A Passion for Planetary Wellbeing.” The NYK Group is promoting growth strategies with ESG at the core, based on the Group’s basic philosophy of “Bringing value to life” and a new corporate vision for 2030, which reads, “we go beyond the scope of a comprehensive global logistics enterprise to co-create value required for the future by advancing our core business and growing new ones”.