Tokyo: Effective April 1 a new name in LPG shipping is set to rise from Japan. Gyxis Corporation is the name given to the merged LPG business of three local refiners and a trading firm. The name is a play on the words gas and Pyxis, a constellation which in Latin means mariner’s compass.
The LPG divisions of Cosmo Oil, Showa Shell Sekiyu and Tonen General Sekiyu have joined forces with trading house Sumitomo Corporation to form the firm which will be involved in shipping, trading and storage. The new firm has set its sights on accounting for roughly one quarter of Japan’s LPG imports, some 2.8m tonnes a year.
Japan’s LPG players have contracted over the years. For instance, Astomos Energy Corporation, the world’s top LPG importer, was created via the merger of Idemitsu Kosan and Mitsubishi Corporation’s LPG businesses nine years ago.
