MOL Launches "ISHIN NEXT - MOL SMART SHIP PROJECT -"
- Enhancing Business Strengths and Increasing Corporate Value -

TOKYO-Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Junichiro Ikeda) today announced the launch of the ISHIN NEXT - MOL SMART SHIP PROJECT -, a new technological development project that builds on the success of the Senpaku ISHIN project (Note 1), announced in 2009.

Through the project, MOL will share its technological development policies with customers and other stakeholders, and therefore collect diversified needs and various seeds of technologies. By matching them, MOL intends to develop two fields of technologies such as safer vessel operation and reducing environmental impact, which helps enhance its business strengths and increase its corporate value.

The concept of this project is as follows.

Under the concept, MOL will adopt to newbuilding vessels, both of "advanced support technologies for safer vessel operation" and "technologies for reducing environmental impact". MOL will verify practical effects of these technologies every one year after the vessels are in-service, the result of which will be reported at the same time. In addition, MOL develops the technologies that proactively adopt ICTs (Note 2).

(Note 1) Senpaku ISHIN
MOL planned its next-generation concept ships and developed the underlying technologies required for the concept. For details, please refer to: http://www.mol.co.jp/ishin/en/index.html

(Note 2) ICT
Information and Communication Technology, which encompasses both information technology (IT) and advanced telecommunications.