() is a Japanese heavy industries company. Despite its name, it no longer builds ships and now focuses mainly on production of high-value ship equipment such as

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

and automated

gantry crane A gantry crane is a Crane (machine), crane built atop a wikt:gantry, gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the wor ...

s. Mitsui E&S is the largest supplier of gantry cranes in Japan with a market share of nearly 90 per cent, and its products are used at major ports such as

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

Ho Chi Minh (born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...

, and Klang.

History

Mitsui E&S was established in 1917 as the Shipbuilding Division of Mitsui & Co. with the first shipyard at Tamano. It built the first Japan-built diesel-propelled merchant ship, ''Akagisan Maru'' ( 赤城山丸) in 1924. With its success, it began manufacturing diesel engines under a license agreement with Burmeister & Wain in Denmark. In 1937, the shipyards became a separate entity within the Mitsui zaibatsu, Tama Shipyard. The company changed its name to Mitsui Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd. in 1942. In 1948, Mitsui E&S built the first Japan-built ship to be exported after the loss of the Second World War, ''S.S.Knurr'' (a Norwegian whaling ship). In 1951, it started its chemical plants business by building a

nylon Nylon is a family of synthetic polymers characterised by amide linkages, typically connecting aliphatic or Polyamide#Classification, semi-aromatic groups. Nylons are generally brownish in color and can possess a soft texture, with some varieti ...

production plant for

Toray Industries is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered on technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry. Its founding business areas were fibers and textiles, ...

. In 1961, it built 'the world's first automated ship' ''Kinkasan maru'' ( 金華山丸）for MOL. This ship was the first of its scale to control the entire engine room from the bridge, and other major parts of the ship were also automatically or remotely controlled from the bridge. In 1967, as the container ship age dawned, it built its first gantry cranes for container ships. In 1975, it built the '' Berge Emperor'', which was the longest ship ever built at that time, measuring 391.83m, for Bergesen d.y. in Norway. Mitsui E&S acquired Burmeister & Wain's engineering and construction business in 1990, and through this acquisition, it also acquired Burmeister's boiler business in 2017, which primarily caters to small and medium

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

power plants. Chikyu 1

Mitsui E&S split its naval and merchant shipbuilding businesses in 2021, selling the former (including the Tamano Shipyard) to

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the prede ...

and selling a 49% stake in the latter to Tsuneishi Shipbuilding. Tsuneishi took over a majority stake of the merchant shipbuilding business in 2022 as Mitsui E&S refocused its strategy on marine engines, port cranes, and other machinery. In 2022, Mitsui E&S agreed to purchase IHI's marine engine business, and announced that it was in the process of developing ammonia-fueled marine engine technologies as a means of reducing emissions.

PACECO

PACECO CORP. PACECO Corp., formerly the Pacific Coast Engineering Company, is an American industrial fabricator and mechanical engineering company headquartered in Hayward, California, Haywood, California. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui Engineering ...

is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsui E&S headquartered in Hayward,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It built the first dedicated ship-to-shore container crane in the world in 1958. On 22 February 2024, the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

announced that as part of its 20-billion-dollar scheme to upgrade and secure the country's port infrastructure, Mitsui E&S and PACECO are planning to resume manufacturing cranes in the US.

Facilities

Mitsui E&S has works in Tamano, Ichikawa, and Oita, and business offices in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, Oita,

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Notable ships

Imperial Japanese Navy

* Shimushu-class escorts ''Shimushu'' and ''Ishigaki'' * Etorofu-class escorts ''Matsuwa'', ''Iki'', ''Wakamiya'', and ''Manju'' * Ukuru-class escorts ''Inagi'', ''Habuchi'', ''Oshika'', ''Kanawa'', and ''Takane'' * Atami-class gunboat ''Atami'' * Gunboat ''Kotaka'' * Ōtori-class torpedo boat ''Kiji'' * W-1-class minesweeper ''W-2'' * W-5-class minesweeper ''W-5'' * W-7-class minesweeper ''W-7'' * W-13-class minesweeper ''W-16'' * W-17-class minesweeper ''W-18'' * No. 4-class submarine chaser Nos. 8 and 12 * No. 13-class submarine chaser Nos. 14 and 20 * No. 28-class submarine chaser Nos. 30, 33, and 37 * Hirashima-class auxiliary ships ''Hoko'' and ''Niizaki''

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

* 2 Ōsumi class LST - 4001 and 4002 * 1 Hiuchi class support ship - JS Hiuchi (AMS-4301) * 1 W-7 Class minesweeper (W-7) * Abukuma class destroyer escorts

Ocean liners

* '' Ukishima Maru'' * '' Hōkoku Maru'' * '' Aikoku Maru'' * '' Gokoku Maru''

Tankers

* '' Berge Emperor''

Bulkers

* Mitsui 56 series: A popular type of bulk carrier. , Mitsui had built 151 of them.

References

External links

Company website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Japanese companies established in 1917 Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies in the Nikkei 225 Engineering companies of Japan Shipbuilding companies of Japan Defense companies of Japan Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Mitsui Manufacturing companies established in 1917 Japanese brands Former submarine builders