Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Company of Tsuneishi Holdings Corporation (Head Office: 1083 Tsuneishi Numakuma-cho Fukuyama-city, Hiroshima, CEO: Katsushige Kambara) has invested 22 billion yen toward construction of new work sites, including a new shipbuilding dock and the second factory with four 300-ton cranes at the oversea subsidiary company, Tsuneishi Heavy Industry Sebu (THI). Construction began in March of this year and will be completed in 2009.

The new shipbuilding dock will allow 180,000-ton class, cape size bulk carriers to be built. After its completion in 2009, the number of 50,000-ton (laden weight) class ships that can be built will increase from 14 (at present) to 30 at this site, including the 2 currently existing building berths.

THI started construction of building berths in 1995, a year after its foundation. THI built three 20,000-ton class bulk carriers in 1996, and seven 40,000 to 50,000-ton class handy max bulkers in 2001. The volume of shipbuilding has increased gradually over time. In 2004, about 4.2 billion yen was put into construction of new facilities and a second building berth, larger than the first, was built. As a result of increased shipbuilding capacity, 12 ships (laden weight: 52,000-tons) were completed in 2006.

Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Company is aiming at sales figures of 300 billion yen in 2010, with 100 billion in sales at the two domestic factories and 100 billion in both China and the Philippines. Expansion of facilities, including the docks at the overseas main production site, is critical to meeting this goal.

-- Contact for this article --
Business Planning Department of Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Company
Tsuneishi Holdings Corporation

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