Launch of FALCONs Service for Hull Fouling Management on KAMBARA KISEN's Container Ships

November 4, 2025

MITSUI E&S Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Takeyuki Takahashi, hereinafter "MITSUI E&S") has commenced the provision of the hull contamination management service FALCONs for the container ship Proactive Earth operated by KAMBARA KISEN Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, President: Hirotatsu Kambara, hereinafter "KAMBARA KISEN"). Through the provision of the FALCONs service, MITSUI E&S contributes to KAMBARA KISEN's accurate fuel consumption monitoring and CO₂ reduction through efficient operation and cleaning.

Conventional Issues and Features of the New Service
KAMBARA KISEN has been working on improving fuel efficiency and reducing CO₂ emissions during operations by utilizing the maritime data platform to validate operation and voyage data. However, it has been challenging to accurately determine performance while excluding external factors such as waves and wind due to hull fouling. The hull fouling management service FALCONs provided by MITSUI E&S features a unique propulsion performance analysis method, allowing the impact of hull fouling on fuel efficiency to be quantified. With the implementation of FALCONs, KAMBARA KISEN can perform hull cleaning at optimal timing, enabling efficient fuel consumption and CO₂ reduction.


Proactive Earth.   Image by Mitsui Engineering & Services

Demonstration and Future Developments
FALCONs can also analyze past operational data collected by customers. For this introduction, the analysis of the past year's operational data of Proactive Earth confirmed the ability to quantitatively understand the negative impact of hull fouling on fuel efficiency, which was a decisive factor in the service's introduction.

Particularly for container ships with short docking periods, making it difficult to clean the entire hull, it is important to quantitatively determine "when and where to clean for maximum effectiveness," and FALCONs is expected to deliver these results in this regard.

KAMBARA KISEN plans to continuously use the analysis results from FALCONs and combine them with underwater fouling inspections and AI-based fouling assessments to maximize cleaning effectiveness when fuel efficiency deterioration due to fouling is observed.

Once sufficient results are achieved, they plan to consider expanding to other container ships and different types of vessels. Therefore, MITSUI E&S will contribute to CO₂ reduction in KAMBARA KISEN's operational vessels through the continuous provision of FALCONs services.

MITSUI E&S upholds the Company philosophy of building trust and contributing to society through its engineering and services. Moving forward, we will continue to expand and enhance our maintenance and inspection service businesses by leveraging advanced digital technology, contributing to the realization of a decarbonized society and to solving the problems of a shrinking population.


Image by Mitsui Engineering & Services

(MES) Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. press release