Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is planning to downsize its shipbuilding operations in order to deal with the current market downturn, Japanese media Nikkei has reported.
MHI has decided to stop taking new orders for large passenger ships, will spin off its design and development division, and it will also share shipyards with other shipbuilders. The shipyard now plans to focus on smaller ships with simpler specifications.
At the end of August, MHI said it was in discussions with Imabari Shipbuilding, Oshima Shipbuilding and Namura Shipbuilding to form a grouping that would “collectively provide Japan’s commercial ship industry with robust global competitive strength”.
In the first half of this year, new shipbuilding orders in Japan plunged 82%, the worst performance seen since 2008.
Another Japanese shipbuilder, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, may exit the shipbuilding business entirely saying last week that it would decide by the end of March 2017 whether to continue in the sector.