The last ship has been delivered! Another Japanese shipyard is exiting the shipbuilding market.
2022-02-05 09:00
On January 27, Japanese medium-sized shipyard Kanda Shipbuilding completed the delivery of its last new vessel under construction, ending its shipbuilding history of over 60 years and completely exiting the shipbuilding market.
On the same day, Kanda Shipbuilding's Kawajiri shipyard in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, where its headquarters are located, delivered the 19,900 DWT bulk carrier "ORIENTAL MASTER". This was the 586th vessel built by Kanda Shipbuilding. It was named and launched last September, and then took about 4 months to complete fitting-out work and sea trials.
After delivering its last vessel, Kanda Shipbuilding will, as planned, cease its primary shipbuilding business and shift its focus to repair operations. Kanda Shipbuilding's repair business will be taken over by a new company established on April 1, with all shares of this new company being transferred to Tsuneishi Shipbuilding. The Kawajiri shipyard and the Wakaba shipyard, which originally handled repairs, are expected to be retained.
It is understood that Kanda Shipbuilding is one of Japan's major medium-sized shipbuilding companies. It originally began operations in 1937 as Kanda Shipbuilding Iron Works, a designated shipyard for the former Imperial Japanese Navy. After World War II, it was reorganized in 1948 as Kanda Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., and in 1959, the Wakaba shipyard was opened as a ship repair facility. Currently, Kanda Shipbuilding's Kawajiri shipyard has 2 slipways and 1 floating dry dock for ship repair, while the Wakaba shipyard has 2 floating dry docks for ship repair.
Kanda Shipbuilding's main vessel type was 30,000-40,000 DWT bulk carriers. However, due to intense competition with Chinese shipyards, Kanda Shipbuilding began to face financial difficulties around 2014. With the full support of its main bank, it has been seeking restructuring.
Data shows that in the 2020 fiscal year (ending March 2021), Kanda Shipbuilding's sales reached 15 billion Japanese Yen, with shipbuilding accounting for 80% and ship repair for 20%. Over the past 5 years, Kanda Shipbuilding has been operating at a loss, and its profitability has deteriorated. On the other hand, the ship repair business has remained profitable, with Kanda Shipbuilding specializing in the repair of ferries and tugboats and having a stable demand for regular vessel inspections.
Against this backdrop, in May last year, Kanda Shipbuilding announced its exit from the shipbuilding market starting January 2022, establishing a new company to focus on repair operations. In November of the same year, Kanda Shipbuilding also reached an agreement with Tsuneishi Shipbuilding, under which Tsuneishi Shipbuilding will acquire Kanda Shipbuilding's ship repair business, with the transaction expected to be completed in April 2022. Through this capital cooperation, Tsuneishi Shipbuilding and Kanda Shipbuilding hope to integrate both parties' repair docks and facilitate personnel exchanges to achieve synergies and enhance corporate value.
As Kanda Shipbuilding exits the shipbuilding market, only about 100 of the existing approximately 300 employees will continue to work in ship repair, while the remaining employees will seek new jobs. Additionally, Kanda Shipbuilding has over 40 partner companies with a total of 500-600 employees, but the ship repair work will only require approximately 100 of them to be retained.
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