NYK Bulk & Projects Carriers Ltd. (NBP; head office: Tokyo; president: Masamichi Morooka) has agreed to a contract with Baja Bulk Carriers S.A. (head office: California, USA), which is a joint venture between the Mitsubishi Corporation (head office: Tokyo; president and CEO: Ken Kobayashi) and the Mexican government, for a 15-year charter of a newly built bulk carrier specialized to transport salt. The new bulker will be delivered in August 2014.
The vessel is being built by Oshima Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. (head office: Saikai City, Nagasaki Prefecture), and the capacity of the ship will be extended beyond the typical 60,000 DWT by extending the vessel’s length by 9 meters. Furthermore, the vessel will have additional equipment for cargo handling — including two mobile cranes, a belt conveyor, a boom conveyor, and a hopper — to meet requirements fully at the discharging port. The vessel will also have an eco-ship structural design and will come equipped with an advanced electronically controlled engine.
The vessel will shuttle salt to the west coast of North America from a salt field business* in Mexico. The salt is used in a wide range of industries, including as a raw material in sodium hydroxide and chlorine in the soda industry, and for road deicing.
About vessel
| Length overall: | about 209.30 meters |
| Breadth: | about 32.26 meters |
| Designed draft: | about 12.75 meters |
| Deadweight tonnage: | about 62,800 tons |
| Flag: | Panama |
*Salt field business
In Guerrero Negro, Mexico, the Mitsubishi Corporation (MC; 49%) and the Mexican government (51%) own the world’s largest solar saltern business. Eight million tons a year are produced. Exports from this salt field began in 1957, and MC bought the business in 1973. Afterward, the Mexican government took a stake in this business.