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On June 27, the expanded Panama Canal opened for commercial transit, and Lycaste Peace, a very large liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier operated by NYK, was the first vessel to complete a commercial passage through the new locks.
On June 26, the Panama Canal Authority held an inauguration ceremony for the expanded canal. The maximum dimensions of a vessel transiting the canal have been expanded to 366 meters in overall length, 49 meters in breadth, and 15.2 meters of draft. In 1914, the NYK-operated Tokushima Maru was the first Japanese-flagged vessel to pass through the canal, and over the 100-plus years since then, NYK and the Republic of Panama have maintained an important partnership.
Lycaste Peace transports LPG procured in the U.S. by the Astomos Energy Corporation (head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; president: Osamu Masuda) to Japan. Astomos Energy is one of the world???s largest players in the LPG business, and NYK has maintained a close business relationship with the company for many years.
Astomos Energy plans to increase its LPG handling volume from the current 10 million tons/year to 12 million tons/year by 2017. Furthermore, the company is expecting growth in its LPG business in the coming years, including LPG procurement associated with new LNG projects in the Middle East, the U.S., and Australia. The expanded Panama Canal is expected to shorten transportation days to Japan from the U.S. East Coast and allow for further diversification of LPG supply sources.
Based on the business strategy outlined in the NYK Group???s ???More Than Shipping 2018??? medium-term management plan, NYK will continue to take advantage of creative solutions for stable, economical operations.
About Lycaste Peace
Overall length: 230.0 meters
Breadth: 36.6 meters
Molded depth: 10.78 meters
Gross tonnage: 46,021 tons
Flag: Panama
Built: 2003
Builder: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
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Bulk Argentina, a bulk carrier operated by NYK Bulk & Projects Carriers Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of NYK Line, rescued three people from a sailing yacht in distress on June 9 off the coast of Peru.
Bulk Argentina was sailing between Chile???s port of Patache and China???s port of Fangchenggang on June 8, when the ship received a distress call from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) indicating that a nearby yacht was taking on water approximately 170 nautical miles from the ship. In coordination with MRCC, the ship proceeded at full speed toward the yacht and rescued three sailors.
The sailors were given food and fresh water, and as directed by MRCC, transferred to another containership headed to France.
About Bulk Argentina
Captain: Trinh Trung Kien
Flag: Panama
Crew: 20 seafarers (Vietnamese)
Gross Tonnage: 30,816 tons
Type of Vessel: Bulk Carrier
Shipowner: Hayama Shipping Ltd.
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The NYK Group has been selected by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) as a 'Competitive IT Strategy Company' for 2016. NYK is the first company in the maritime industry to receive this award. This award recognizes NYK's appropriate internal governance of the planning, execution, and utilization of IT, in addition to the company's active IT efforts.
Since 2015, METI and TSE have assessed companies listed on the TSE for proactive IT implementation that creates management innovation, enhances profitability and productivity, and leads to increases in mid-to-long term corporate value and competitiveness.
In support of the creative solutions advocated in the company's "More Than Shipping 2018" medium-term management plan, NYK has reinforced the disaster-resistance of its data-center, implemented utilization of a cloud service for the maintenance of a global information platform, and adapted new enterprise systems for containership and car carrier businesses to improve the convenience and security of the IT infrastructure.
In addition to the company's development of a tangible IT system, NYK is competitive and proactive in the rapidly developing fields of IoT* and Big Data. In fact, NYK has established an optimizing container management system and a ship information management system to share data timely between sea and land for optimal economic ship operation.
The NYK Group will continue to encourage 'creative solutions' in various fields for steady growth and an increase in corporate value.
*IoT
Internet of Things - All things are assigned unique identifiers and given the ability to automatically transfer data over a network without the need of human operation.
