Japan’s MOL sets up offshore wind division

Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has announced that it will restructure the organisation as of 1 April and that it will establish a business division dedicated solely to offshore wind.

As part of its restructuring and setting up several new business units and divisions, MOL is establishing the Wind Power Energy Business Division to expand and accelerate activities in the offshore wind sector.

The division will be a part of the Energy and Offshore Business Unit at MOL’s Hokkaido branch. According to documents on MOL’s website, the Energy and Offshore Business Unit is its former Energy Transport Business Unit, which is now being renamed and reorganised to reflecting the company’s goal to establish business domains not limited to transportation and to strengthen investments in offshore business, outlined in its “Rolling Plan 2020”.

MOL is part of a joint venture that ordered the first Taiwan-flagged service operations vessel (SOV).

In 2020, Ta San Shang Marine (TSS), a joint venture between MOL and Ta Tong Marine Group (TTM), signed an SOV charter contract with Ørsted for its Changhua offshore wind farms. The vessel, being built at Vard Vung Tau shipyard in Vietnam, is scheduled to be delivered in 2022 and will use the Port of Taichung as its base port to serve Ørsted’s Changhua offshore wind farms.