A WIND-ASSISTED bulk carrier that Japan hopes will lead a global effort to reduce fuel use and carbon emissions in sea transport sailed into the Port of Newcastle this morning, before tying up at Carrington for an official welcoming ceremony.
Mitsui O.S.K. Line's Shofu Maru arrived on its maiden voyage 17 days after leaving Japan, the first vessel to use a patented hard sail technology known as "Wind Challenger".
The NSW Port Authority took a convoy of media and Mitsui and shipping industry representatives to the top of Nobbys to record the ship's arrival, before the Channel Berth ceremony attended by more than 70 people, including the new Japanese Consul General Tokuda Shuichi.
A fleet of six tugs were on hand to greet the Shofu Maru, with the standard welcome of a tug water canon shooting torrents of brown harbour water - discoloured by the heavy rain - into the air.
Under overcast skies, a light southerly breeze and a building nor-east swell, the 235-metre bulk carrier slid past Nobbys at 8.45am.
As the Newcastle Herald reported on Friday, work on the Wind Challenger technology began in 2009 at the University of Tokyo.
Today's ceremony heard Mitsui and its partner Oshima Shipbuilding took over the project in 2018, with hopes that the Shofu Maru will be the first of a line of vessels that use the telescopic sail, possibly in rows along the length of the ship.
The Shofu Maru's captain, Takehiko Matsushita, told the Herald Mitsui was confident the technology would save the promised 5 per cent of fuel - reducing the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions, but also saving money through reduced fuel purchases.
Mitsui says the Wind Challenger sail is some 50 metres high when its four telescopic sections are fully extended, and its 20 metre with gives it a maximum area of 1000 square metres.
The Wind Challenger technology appears to have attracted significant interest in the shipping world, and the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) had its Sydney correspondent travel from Newcastle to cover the ceremony.
Mitsui's managing executive officer responsible for Oceania and East and South-East Asia, Nobuo Shiotsu, told the ceremony of more than a century of coal trade between Newcastle and Japan, and spoke of Japanese shipping's desire to reduce greenhouse emissions and make sea transport more efficient.
As well as the sail technology, Mitsui was looking at other fuels to replace heavy fuel oil, with work being done to commercialise ammonia, methanol and LNG as well as hydrogen.
Speaking of a Japan Australia Coal Conference in Brisbane not so long ago, Mr Shiotsu said: "At that time, this project was our dream but today this is a reality, a dream come true, today."
The Consul General, Mr Tokuda, spoke of the importance of "collaboration and co-operation", and referred to the weekend meeting in Perth between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, where agreements were made on national security and energy security, with Japan seeking long-term assurances on continued access to Australian coal and gas.
"International trade is the lifeblood of the economy, and shipping is fundamental to trade," Mr Tokuda said.
Although the Port of Newcastle is now privately operated, the state-run Port Authority of NSW provides ship pilotage services in the port.
Newcastle harbour master Vikas Bangia described to the Herald how he and two harbour pilots, Mark Webb and Nick Leonard, flew to Japan recently to train on a Mitsui simulator.
Newcastle's 24 ship pilots are among the many who train regularly at the Centre for Maritime Simulation in Tasmania, but Mr Webb and Mr Leonard said the Japanese simulator was "out of this world".
"We were ready to go over there a few years ago but COVID hit," Mr Webb said.
"So there's been a bit of a delay but we went over recently and did our training, and now it's here."
The pair co-piloted the Shofu Maru into Newcastle this morning, with the vessel passing Nobbys at 8.45am.
One of the obvious concerns with such a large structure at the bow of any vessel is visibility, but Mr Leonard said the telescopic sail was shortened to half-height entering the port, and aligned to minimise the area directly obscured to about three degrees of vision.
"It's similar to a cargo ship with deck cranes on it," Mr Leonard said.
Shipping Australia policy and communications executive Jim Wilson said the industry acknowledged the need to decarbonise where possible and believed the Shofu Maru and the Wind Challenger technology would be "the first of many such initiatives".
Mr Wilson pointed to work being done to reduce fuel use by various design improvements, including various proprietary designs of "propellor ducting" - such as the "Beker Mewis Duct - which are designed to reduce air pockets or "cavitation" around the propellor, producing claimed fuel savings of up to 8 per cent.
Transport for NSW deputy secretary Tara McCarthy welcomed the Wind Challenger technology as "a world first" and said the need to address climate change meant the NSW government had "an economy wide target of net zero (emissions) by 2050".
Ms McCarthy said the transport sector was "second only to the energy sector in its greenhouse gas emissions" and with the energy sector becoming increasingly renewable, the transport sector was on target to the biggest emitter by 2025.
Although some have described the idea of a single sail on a ship carrying coal as "greenwashing", the Mitsui executives and others the Herald spoke with at the ceremony were adamant that the 5 per cent saving in fuel and emissions was just the start.
In the same way a range of renewable generating technologies are being developed to replace baseload fossil fuels, so it was that a range of energy saving devices could be used in transport to reduce the volume of emissions.
The Shofu Maru moves to the Kooragang 8 berth operated by the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group, where it will load up to 100,000 tonnes of coal - the vessel's "deadweight" capacity - before its departure, scheduled for 11.15am on Tuesday morning.
It is sailing to Noshiro in northern Japan. It is expected to be a regular vessel to Newcastle as one of Mitsui's fleet of coal ships.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Newcastle Herald website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.
