NYK awarded for vessel speed reduction incentive programme

NYK has received recognition for its involvement in the Protecting Blue Whales and Blue Skies vessel speed reduction (VSR) incentive programme throughout North America’s West Coast.

This comes one month after NYK obtained its first maritime certification for ambient-temperature containment system.

This programme encourages voluntary vessel speed reduction in the Santa Barbara Channel and the San Francisco Bay area to protect whales and cut air pollution.

For about seven months from 1 May 2022, the programme’s partners reportedly analysed each participating company’s automatic information system (AIS) data and evaluated the company’s adherence to the request that vessels transit at 10 knots or less through the VSR zones.

More than 85 per cent of NYK operating vessels maintained a navigation speed of less than 10 knots, a higher rate than in the last four years.

NYK plans to use the incentive of $20,000 to address social and environmental issues under the NYK Group sustainability Initiative.

In June 2023, NYK installed a variable compression ratio (VCR) system on two large LNG-fuelled coal carriers to be built by Oshima Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.

That same month, the Japanese classification society ClassNK gave Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. and NYK Approval in Principle (AiP) for a ship capable of transporting ammonia and liquefied CO2 (LCO2).