Service Overview

Wood Chip Carriers

We possess, manage, and operate vessels specifically used for the transport of wood chips for leading Japanese paper manufacturing and trading companies. We strive to offer high-quality service every day based on our many years of experience.

In recent years, with the development of electronic media, there has been a decline in the need for paper used for books, newspapers, and magazines, especially in developed countries. However, the global market for other paper products used in toilet paper and other daily commodities is expected to grow further.

The consumption of paper per person in China, India, and other countries is comparatively less than that of developed countries, so it is expected that the need for wood chip transport will increase in the future for these countries. Our wood chip carriers sail from forested areas on 5 continents to Japan, China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, and other countries, acting as a sort of Conveyor belt, delivering wood chips to the various factories for our clients.

In 1967, the global wood chip carrier industry was just beginning. Our wood chip transport business began in 1967 when we offered a Japanese crew and accepted ownership of the Hiro Maru and the Marusumi Maru, jointly owned vessels together with our parent company NYK Line.In addition to the former two vessels, it began in 1968 when we offered a Japanese crew and accepted management of the Kure Maru to NYK Line. In 1972, the Hoyo Maru was completed, and became the first ship owned and operated solely by Hachiuma Steamship. In the 1970’s through the first half of the 1980’s, we acquired greater knowledge of the business through vessels that we owned via long-term contracts and through spot transport and contracts of affreightment (COA) with charter vessels. The yen became stronger after the 1985 Plaza Accord, leading to an increase in the need for wood chip imports, which in turn led to great development of our business in the second half of the 1980’s. In the 1990’s, we began to heavily use our wood chip carriers for transporting soybean flour from South America to Europe and Southeast Asia, and we continue to contribute to soybean flour transport, in addition to transporting wood chips.

Currently, our wood chip transport business is an important one, ranking 4th in volume behind the 3 large companies in the Japanese marine transport industry. In recent years, in addition to wood chips used in paper manufacturing, we have become involved in transporting wood chips used in biomass power generation, which is more environmentally friendly. We continue to develop our wood chip transport business while aiming for the future.

Completion Dates for Our Wood Chip Carriers

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