Japanese-based trading house Mitsui & Co. said it was pushing forward with the procurement of eight LNG ships to be used for the delivery of LNG mainly to its customers in Japan from the
Cameron LNG Export Project in the U.S. On September 26, 2014, Mitsui signed time charter parties for five of the above eight ships for a total maximum charter hire amount of approximately 400 billion Japanese yen (approx. USD 3.64 billion). Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has signed a contract with Mitsui to charter two new 155,000m3 LNG carriers. The charter period will start around 2018 and will last up to 25 years. The LNG carriers will feature about 300 m in length, 48.9m
in breadth and will have cargo tank capacity of 155,000m3. The builder of the said vessels is Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The remaining three ships have been chartered from a subsidiary of Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), one ship, and ship-owning companies in which Mitsui invests, two ships. Additionally, Mitsui is preparing to conclude time charter parties for the remaining 3 ships. The maximum charter period is 25 years with the commencement of charter scheduled for 2017-2018.
