三菱重工建造日本国内最大郵船

Last month the Mainichi News on-line reported the following:

三菱重工:国内最大級クルーズ客船の起工式…長崎造船所

毎日新聞　2013年06月30日　20時30分（最終更新　07月01日　00時26分）

　国内最大級のクルーズ客船（１２万４５００トン、乗客数約３３００人）の起工式が３０日、長崎市の三菱重工長崎造船所であった。同造船所での客船建造は、作業中に火災事故が起きた「ダイヤモンド・プリンセス」を引き渡して以来９年ぶり。

　イタリアの客船運航会社、コスタ・グループから２０１１年に受注した２隻のうちの１番船。全長約３００メートル、幅３７．６メートルで、１６４３室を備える。船体形状の改良などで燃費性能を大幅に向上させるという。引き渡しは１５年３月の予定だ。

　起工式には、関係者約５０人が出席。新造船の航海の安全などを願う儀式の後、船底部分の船体ブロックが据え付けられた。三菱重工は、付加価値が高い客船を造船部門の主力に位置づけており、同造船所の橋本州史（くにふみ）所長は「客船建造の大きな節目。全力を挙げていい船を造りたい」と述べた。【小畑英介】

(試譯文)

   The ground-breaking ceremony of the greatest cruise passenger ship (124,500 tons, for about 3300 passengers) in the country was held at the Nagasaki shipyard of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industry in Nagasaki on the 30^th (June). It was for the first time in nine years since the fire accident happened during the building of the “Diamond Princess".

    From the Costa group in 2011, a passenger liner operating company in Italy, an order was received for one of its two ships. It would have 1643 rooms, about 300 meters in full length, and 37.6 meters in width. It was said that its fuel consumption performance would be improved sharply by improving the shape of the hull etc. Delivery was a scheduled for March, 2015.

   About 50 people attended a ground-breaking ceremony. After the ceremony to wish the voyage safety of the new ship etc., as part of the ship, the ship's-bottom portion was installed. Mitsubishi Heavy Industry had positioned the high added value passenger liners as the main force of its shipbuilding division. Hashimoto Kumifumi as the head of the shipyard said that “the construction of big passenger liner is a major milestone. I would like to do my best to build a good ship".

It seems that the ship building industry in Japan is not particularly active.