Minaminippon Shipbuilding Plans Shipyard in Oita

Minaminippon Shipbuilding Co. said Thursday it will open by April 2008 a shipyard able to build 100,000-ton tankers on land to be purchased in Oita Prefecture's waterfront industrial belt. The Oita Prefecture builder of tankers and auto carriers will also build a repair dock at the new facility and expand an existing shipyard elsewhere in Oita in view of growing shipping activity worldwide, company officials said, adding it will spend 14 billion yen on the capital investment. It will be the first shipyard built in Japan since 2000, when Imabari Shipbuilding Co. completed a major facility in Ehime Prefecture. Minaminippon's project is set to raise the company's output to eight vessels per year by fiscal 2011 through March 2012 from the current five. According to a company estimate, this should raise annual sales to 42 billion yen from 19 billion yen in fiscal 2005.