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The three grain carriers will be 95,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) vessels: 237 meters (m) in length, 40m in width, and 12.5m in designed draught. The shallow draught of the ships facilitates the pursuit of energy savings and CO2 emission reduction efficiency by MALS. Oshima Shipbuilding will perform from the basic design work through construction based on the conceptual design and green technologies provided by MHI. Delivery of equipment related to MALS system from MHI is slated for 2014. The talks to build the three dry bulk carriers began between ADM and MHI. MHI's Shipbuilding & Ocean Development segment has been implementing a policy to promote engineering business, including technological support to other shipbuilders. Under this policy, the company decided to collaborate for this time with Oshima Shipbuilding, a firm that has earned a solid reputation in bulk carrier design and construction through delivery/order receipt of about 60 post-Panamax* class ships. The collaboration has enabled the two companies to provide enhanced cost effectiveness to the customer. ADM is one of the U.S.'s top-ranking grain companies. The three bulk carriers, which mark the first new shipbuilding order placed by ADM, are designed to accommodate new post-Panamax* needs. The new bulk carriers are designed to make an important contribution to international efforts to fight global warming, a demand that is especially strong in the case of oceangoing vessels. Going forward MHI will continue to accord priority to the development of vessels addressing CO2 reduction needs by focusing on development of its "Eco-ship" and sales expansion of related systems and equipment. Note: "Post-Panamax class" refers to the ships that are unable to travel through the Panama Canal and "new post-Panamax" refers to the size limit of ships that will be able to travel through the Panama Canal after its planned expansion is completed in 2014: 366m in length overall (LOA), 49m in width and 15.2m in tropical freshwater (TFW) draft. Panamax parameters are 295.0 m in LOA, 32.2 m in width and 12.0 m in draft. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. press release |