Japanese shipbuilders, leapfrogged by South Korean and Chinese yards in an industry they once dominated, are counting on fuel-saving technology to help them overcome a stronger yen and high wages.
“There’s a sense of crisis in the medium-to-long term with the currency,” said Hiroshi Minami, president of Oshima Shipbuilding Co., based in Saikai, Nagasaki prefecture. “We need to focus on more fuel-efficient ships to compete.”
Japan’s backlog for ship orders is less than half the size of both China’s and South Korea’s as prices about 20 percent higher than in China dent sales in a market worth $95 billion a year. Oshima Shipbuilding, Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Japan’s largest shipyard, and other local vessel makers are now backing global fuel-use standards, similar to cars’ mileage ratings, to highlight cost-savings for operators as oil prices rise.
“Fuel consumption is what matters,” said Klaus Nyborg, chief executive officer of Pacific Basin Shipping Ltd., whose dry-bulk fleet, excluding charters, is almost 90 percent made in Japan. “It’s the difference between breaking even or making a loss.”
A Japanese handy-size dry-bulk ship typically uses about 24 tons of fuel a day, compared with 28 tons for Chinese-made ones, said Nyborg, head of Hong Kong’s largest dry-bulk shipping line. That translates into about $2,700 a day of cost savings on fuel.
A Japan-made handysize costs about $30 million, compared with $25 million to $26 million for a Chinese one, according to Rome-based shipowner d’Amico Societa di Navigazione SpA.
The price of Japanese-made ships, which is usually quoted in dollars, has climbed as the yen strengthened in three of the past four years. It rose to a post-World War II record 76.25 against the greenback in March.
Japan lost its lead as the world’s largest shipbuilding country by orders to South Korea in 2005 and dropped to No. 3 behind China the following year, figures from Japan’s shipbuilding association show.
China took the top spot in 2009 as the government pumped money into shipbuilders to help ensure supplies of raw materials from overseas and to prop up yards during the global financial crisis.
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