MOL launches Japan’s largest ferry and coastal RoRo ship firm

Japan’s shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has decided to integrate two ferry and coastal RORO vessel operating companies, MOL Ferry Co. and Ferry Sunflower Limited.

On 1 October 2023, the companies will be merged, with MOL Ferry as the surviving company. As a result of the merger, the new company will be Japan’s largest ferry and coastal RoRo vessel company, according to MOL.

MOL will establish a new “Headquarters of Wellbeing & Lifestyle Business” in April 2023, bringing together its ferry, coastal RoRo vessel, real estate, cruise ship, and other businesses.

The company intends to achieve further growth by integrating these two companies, which play a core role in the MOL Group’s ferry business.

MOL is also “aiming to flexibly meet changes in customer transportation needs and further improve transport services by concentrating the management resources of the group companies, with an eye toward a decarbonized society, digital transformation (DX), and solutions to logistics.”

To remind, last month, MOL welcomed Japan’s first LNG-fuelled ferry. The ferry launched operation on January 13 between the Osaka-Beppu route, linking Sunflower Ferry Terminal, Osaka Prefecture, and Beppu International Tourist Port, Oita Prefecture. The ferry will serve as a replacement for the ferry Sunflower Ivory.

The company also plans to invest approximately ¥200 billion ($1.81 billion) in low carbon/decarbonization fields over three years from 2021 to 2023 fiscal year. The environmental strategy will see the company accelerate initiatives including moving up the net GHG emission zero schedule by 2050, developing a GHG, introducing of internal carbon pricing as well as promoting alternative fuel, operational efficiency and energy conversation.