Tsuneishi shipyard launches bulk carrier Paradise Island

CEBU, Philippines - Japanese shipbuilder Tsuneishi Heavy Industries Cebu, Inc. (THICI) successfully launched the 58,000 deadweight metric ton type bulk carrier MV Paradise Island last October 9, 2013 at its shipyard in Balamban, Cebu.

Paradise Island is one of the 13 cargo vessels that the shipbuilding firm targets to launch in 2013 alone. The ship’s length is 190 meters, while its breadth is about 32.26 meters.

Tsuneishi also intends to launch this year a total of five cape size bulk carriers, each weighing at least 180,000 deadweight metric tons.

A joint venture of Aboitiz Company, THICI is one of the leading medium-sized shipbuilders in the world. Shipbuilding, ship repair and manufacturing of outfittings for ships and vessels constitute the main business of the company.

THICI ships out medium-sized vessels to different parts of the world from the town of Balamban, Cebu in the central Philippines.

According to Princes Mea Rosel, chief editor of Tsuneishi’s newsletter, the Japanese-owned merchant ship is specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as loads of coal and ore in its cargo holds.

Tsuneishi President Hitoshi Kono said while the industry is experiencing imbalances of supply and demand in the light of unfavorable weakening of global ship prices, “the company, despite this economic situation, stands firm in carrying its responsibilities and commitments, by tightly working together, keeping safety-first principle in mind and taking to heart the company values and Tsuneishi spirit.”

According to Tsuneishi’s top executives, the huge production target for 2013 validates the Philippines’ position as a top manufacturer of world-class ships.

An earlier report said that back in January this year, Austal Philippines' shipyard operations in Balamban recently completed its first ship, a highly advanced world-class trimaran design for the European wind farm market.

Austal is an Australian-based shipbuilding company in the Philippines.

Austal’s  next ship, which is well underway, is a car and passenger ferry which will be the largest ferry ever built in the Philippines while another three wind farm vessels will follow.

The municipality of Balamban, in its website, says that it has rapidly grown into an industrial municipality with the shipbuilding industry located in Barangay Buanoy.

“More than a decade ago, this town was a mere fourth class municipality, but with our determination, coupled with a strong sense of responsibility, and whose vision for Balamban was and is, first and foremost, to uplift the economic life of our people, this once peopled with meager income town has become a multi-faceted first class municipality, boasting of an internationally-known shipbuilding industry,” the municipality’s website balamban.gov.ph says.

The booming shipbuilding industry in the town has also brought about positive economic impact on the constituents as it has opened and given jobs to thousands of workers from the community to the different municipalities, cities and provinces in the country, the website further says.

Early this year, President Benigno Aquino III during the grand opening of Austal Philippines, said that the Philippines now stands as the fourth largest shipbuilding country in the world.

The top three countries which share the market provided by the global shipbuilding industry are China (45 percent), South Korea (29 percent) and Japan (18 percent), an entry from Wikipedia reveals.