Imabari Shipbuilding will build the first new water testing tank in Japan for the past 40 years.
Japan’s largest shipbuilder says the full test facility will be completed by March 2018. Measuring 212 m in length and 12 m wide, the giant testing laboratory will be used by Imabari to develop greener ship designs.
Previously, Imabari had been using a government owned testing tank.
Imabari will receive tax cuts and subsidies to help finance the construction of the site in Kagawa prefecture.
Imabari has been one of the world’s most successful shipyards in the last couple of years building up an envious orderbook.
At the end of March Imabari announced plans to reclaim around 50,000 sq m of land around its Saijo Shipyard to help it boost manufacturing of large LNG carriers and mega containerships.
It follows on from news early last year that the leading Japanese shipbuilder would expand its Marugame shipbuilding base, adding an extra 600 m long drydock. This new drydock is expected to start operations in October this year.
Imabari has also added a 1,200 ton Goliath crane at its Hiroshima Shipyard in order to build larger boxships.
