MHI slumps to loss
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ (MHI) shipbuilding operation has slipped to a full-year operating loss, figures released Friday show.
The division posted an operating loss of JPY 5.5bn ($54m) versus an operating profit of JPY 11.5bn for FY2012.
MHI said shipbuilding net sales declined 42% year-on-year to JPY 183.8bn, while orders received fell 118.5% to JPY 136.9bn.
In FY2013 the shipbuilder won orders for only eight ships with four of those coming in the fourth quarter.
The previous year saw the company bag 29 newbuilding orders with 24 of them coming in the fourth quarter.
Mitsubishi has an order backlog of 41 ships comprising eight LNG carriers, seven ferries, seven patrol vessels plus other undisclosed ship types.
The company has seen the size of its workforce at its shipbuilding arm decline by 25% since FY2009 from 4,969 to 3,708 at the end of FY2012.
On Thursday MHI disclosed that it had secured a newbuilding contract from NYK for a 155,300-cbm LNG carrier.
The gas carrier was ordered on the back of a long-term charter from domestic utility giant Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO).
The vessel, which is due for delivery in 2017, will be used to import LNG into Japan from the Wheatstone LNG project in Australia.
