Despite building various kinds of merchant ships recently, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has now shifted its focus to gas carriers. Shigeyasu Tanaka, MHI's ship and ocean business managing director, told IHS Maritime the company was now focusing on ships that transport liquefied natural and petroleum gas (LNG and LPG). "We want to focus on high-technology and high-value ships within the limited resources of the company. LNG carriers are a Japanese national requirement. Japan has almost no natural resources, so it imports a lot of LNG," explained Tanaka. He added that recently MHI faced tough competition from South Korean and Chinese shipyards. So in 2013, MHI formed MI LNG, a venture with Imabari Shipbuilding, to win more orders for LNG carriers. MHI has two shipyards, in Nagasaki and Shimonoseki, as well as a repair yard in Yokohama.
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