Description
Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha is a Japanese transportation company. It owns a fleet that includes dry cargo ships (bulk carriers), container ships, liquefied natural gas carriers, Ro-Ro ships, tankers, and container terminals. It is the fourteenth largest container transportation and shipping company in the world.
History
2017-2019
In 2017, K Line, Nippon Yusen (NYK) and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) announced that they would merge and jointly operate their global container shipping services as Ocean Network Express (ONE), in order to better compete against other global container shipping groups. ONE would merge all container shipping services of the three companies, as well as their port terminal operating subsidiaries in various countries, except in Japan, while keeping their other shipping services separate. ONE began operations on April 1, 2018. with the company headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, an business operation headquarters in Singapore and regional headquarters in: London, United Kingdom; Richmond, Virginia; and São Paulo, Brazil.
On 23 July, KESS car carrier Makassar Highway ran hard aground at full speed in the Tjust archipelago near Loftahammar, Sweden, causing an oil spill. By his own account, the captain had ordered a course close to land, far from established shipping lanes, in order to gain mobile phone reception. The ship's satellite communication system and black box were inoperable when departing Cuxhaven for Södertälje, and alarm systems had been disabled. The Swedish Coast Guard recovered approximately 7,000 litres (1,500 imp gal; 1,800 US gal) of oil by 30 July, but thousands of litres of oil nevertheless washed up on the coast. An estimated 14,000 litres (3,100 imp gal; 3,700 US gal) of oil were spilled. The ship was towed to Oskarshamn, where its cargo of 1,325 vehicles were offloaded. The chief mate was taken into custody and accepted a fine for intoxication and recklessness in maritime traffic. His blood alcohol content by mass at the time of the accident was estimated at 1.15 permille, based on samples taken after the accident. The oil spill is also being investigated as an environmental crime.
On 15 June 2019, car carrier Diamond Highway caught fire while sailing in between the ports of Singapore and Batangas. Philippines Coast guard was alerted, and a mission to rescue the 25 members of the Crew was undertaken by another car carrier sailing in proximity. The ship had to be abandoned, and later towed to dry dock. The reason why the fire broke out is unknown, but possibly related to the cargo on board.
