Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has entered into a deal to buy four next-generation car carriers at Minaminippon Shipbuilding. The newbuildings are scheduled to be delivered in 2017 and 2018 and will serve on MOL’s worldwide car carrier services. MOL named the car carriers the ‘Flexie’ series, where the number of decks will go up to 14 from 12 on current vessels. The number of liftable decks will also increased to six from two. The newly designed liftable decks will offer greater flexi...

The shipping and shipbuilding sectors are expected to face another challenging year in 2015, with tonnage oversupply continuing and newbuilding prices staying low, according to B.S. Park, chairman and ceo of Korean Register (KR).   The oversupply problems have yet to be resolved in the dry bulk carrier and oil tanker sectors, while the shipbuilding industry will see weak newbuilding prices, Park pointed out. “The shipbuilding industry will experience fierce competition between Korean...

China is also expected to exceed Greece in terms of total fleet capacity by 2030. That’s the prediction of the Shanghai International Shipping Institute which has just released its 2030 China Shipping Development Outlook report.   The report also forecasts that China will be the world’s largest cruise market, and Chinese shipyards are expected to get about 11 percent of the world’s cruise ship orders by the time.   According to the report, by 2030, China’s total international shi...

New shipbuilding orders placed at China’s shipyards have all gone to 54 of the country’s bigger shipbuilders in the first two months of this year, according to China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (Cansi). Between January to February 2015, Cansi recorded 3.82m dwt of newly completed vessel capacity at Chinese yards, all of which are registered at the 54 larger yards named by the association. At present, there are slightly more than 100 Chinese yards in “full operations...