MOL said it will issue two sets of bonds with five-year terms, with one of the issues aimed at individual investors. Each series of bonds aims to raise $5 billion yen or about $44 million.
MOL said proceeds will be used for a variety of projects:
- Ballast water treatment systems to reduce movement of microbes and bacteria in ballast water. As of April, MOL had such systems on 114 of its ships.
- Scrubbers to remove sulfur oxides from ship engine emissions.
- LNG-fueled ships
- An LNG bunkering ship to be used in North Europe starting in 2020, to fuel mega-containerships that are fueled with LNG.
- New “boss cap fins” for ship propellers, which it says can boost fuel efficiency by 5 percent.
- A project with Tokyo University to demonstrate the uses of advanced sails to reduce fuel consumption by vessels. MOL said it will select a vessel to equip with sales within its current fiscal year and start operation in 2020.