terests and subsidising future interests on the prerequisite that they become solvent in five years under the provisions of two shipping laws (enforced in July 1963)— the
Providing for Temporary Measures for Reorganisation of Shipping, and the Revised Law Providing for State Aid on Interest.
Law
All that remains now is the actual im- plementation of the merger plans from the technical business aspect.
Mitsui Steamship, one of the "Big Three" shipping lines in a Japan, and Kawasaki Steamship, the fourth ranking operator in the nation, on September 18 reported to the Transportation Ministry their decision to merge. It was consider- ed certain, morcover, that the fino Kaiun K. K., leading tanker-freighter operator, would join the Mitsui-Kawasaki group.
Under the original reorganisation plan, Japanese shipping companies were to he amalgamated into six large groups with Mitsui Steamship and Kawasaki Steam- ship each heading an independent group. With these two shipping companies reaching ad agreement on
merger, however, Japan's shipping industry now stands ready to be consolidated into five groups, instead of the originally planned
six.
The five groups are expected to sub- mit details of merger plans to the Ship- ping Industry Reorganisation Planning
Council, a consultative organ of the Transportation Ministry, by December
20.
Except Yamashita Steamship and the Shinnihon Steamship, which have already decided on merger terms, the shipping companies which are expected to merge to form the nuclei of four groups to be organised, have started full-scale negotiations for working out conditions for amalgamation.
The prospective four groups are: (1) NYK-Mitsubishi Shipping; (2) Osaka
Shosen Kaisha-Daido Kaiun-Nitto
Shosen K.K.; (3) Mitsui Steamship- Kawasaki Kisen (lino Kaiun K.K. is
expected to join the group); and (4)
Nissan Kisen Kisen-Nippon Oil Tanker.
the
According to investigations conducted by the Transportation Ministry on July 1, the Mitsui-Kawasaki group owned the largest tonnage of ships of all the said five groups with 189 ships (3,000 gross tonners or larger ships only) totalling 2,557.050 deadweight tons.
Next
NYK-Mitsubishi group with 155 ships aggregating 2,221,- 577 deadweight tons, followed by OSK. Daido Kaiun K.K.-Nitto with 136 ships totalling 1,857,255 tons, Nissan-Nippon Oil Tanker with 55 ships of 1,028,462 tons, and Yamashita-Shinnihon with 71 ships of 1,019,119 tons.
comes
The NYK-Mitsubishi group has six affiliated companies (controlled, capital-
FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REY V
wise) and eight companies under exclu- sive contract; the OSK-Daido-Nitto group three affiliated firms and six firms under exclusive contract; the Mitsui-Kawasaki group three affiliated companies and 20 firms under exclusive contract; the Yama- shita-Shinnihon group four affiliated firms and two firms under exclusive contract; the Nissan-Nippon Oil Tanker group three affiliated companies and three firms under exclusive contract.
AVIATION
The Supersonics
From Kazuo Takita Our Tokyo Correspondent
JAPAN AIR LINES is now being pre- sented with a choice of two faster-than- sound acroplanes with the age of super- sonic airliners just around the corner. The two are the Concord, currently in production by Britain and France, and the American SST (Supersonic transport).
Pan American, BOAC and Air France have already placed orders for the Con- cord. JAL has recently reached a decision to undertake research work on the SST to cope with the forthcoming supersonic age in the world's air lanes, although the airline has been taking a wait-and-see at-
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Page 298
October 31, 1963
Tokyo Telegram
Sumitomo Shoji and Yamada Yuki Manufacturing Co. jointly announce that an automatic petrol vending machine developed and manufactured by the latter will be marketed next March. The new machine has built-in accounting mechanism which will greatly cut the cost of labour; it is claimed to be the first of its kind of the world. The cost will be Yen 550,- 000.
to
a
Asuhi Chemical announce that in order increase production of Silikaltsit, a
new building material, under a technique introduced from Russia, it plans to build two new fac- tories in Hokkaido and Nagoya, in ad-
titude until recently.
The Japanese flag carrier will be in- terested in the Concord only if modified to extend its range slightly to make it practical for the trans-Pacific route. Ex- pected to be ready for test flight in the summer of 1966, the Concord is currently designed to have a range of 3,800 miles. The distance from Tokyo to Honolulu, however, is 3,894 miles.
In contrast, the SST, expected to be developed by September, 1968, will have a range of 4,000 miles. The planned American SST, the feasibility of which is still being questioned hotly in U.S. air- craft circles, has a planned speed of Mach 3 compared with Mach 2.2 for the Concord. It will also have a 125-passenger capacity against 100 passengers for the Anglo-French plane.
The Concord, however, will be far cheaper an estimated Yen 4,000 million versus an estimated Yen 8,500 million for the SST.
With the Concord's reported range, it would have to stop over at Wake Island in making the Tokyo-Honolulu flight: this makes it uneconomical for JAL. In addition, the Concord would take only one hour less to cross the Pacific Ocean than JAL's Douglas DC-8 jetliners take at present.
Despite this, JAL is worried that Pan American, which along with other air carriers has already placed orders for Concords, might assign one of these air- craft to its trans-Pacific route linking Tokyo with cities on the U.S. West Coast. Although such flights, if they in- volved stopover at Wake Island en route, would not be too superior to JAL's Douglas DC-8 flights, the glamour of supersonic travel might lure away many prospective JAL passengers.
This might place Japan Air Lines in a difficult financial position. The airline
dition to a factory now under construc- tion in Chiba prefecture. Silikaltsit is a combination of silica sand and lime and varies in weight from 0.3 gr. to 2 gr. per 1 cu. cm. The Company anticipate that it will take the place of in the fields of irrigation works, high buildings and prefab houses.
concrete
Nippon Denso, which has been pro- ducing 14 items including radiators, dynamos and ignition coils since 1953 under a ten-year contract for technical cooperation with the Robert Bosch Co. of West Germany, is negotiating_to renew the contract for 5 years. The new contract will reduce the royalty to
last year operated at its first overall loss for eight years, running up a deficit of Yen 2,880. million.
China Buys Trident?
By M. Tin Htun
WITHIN a month of each other, the American Boeing 727 and the Hawker Siddeley's Trident recently made their sales promotion flights to Asia. Both had their eyes on the expanding air travel in Japan, where domestic airlines increased their passenger-miles by 67% in 1962. And Japan's internal airlines are looking for regional jet airliners.
It is reported that All Nippon Airways will have to decide on their first order for three aircraft before the end of this year and Japan Air Lines is expected to reach a decision before their next budget. After the Trident's visit, the Under-Secre- tary of State for Air, Mr John Ridsdale, who was visiting Japan also at that time, reported that Japan might buy up to 80 of them for their domestic use.
Both the Boeing and the Trident have short take-off and landing characteristics. When the Trident was shown around in Hongkong, it took off within 6,000 feet of the runway and took only about 2,700 feet for the actual landing. possible because the reverse thrust can be put into operation as soon as the plane touched the ground on landing.
This was
Due to its short range, only for route stages up to about 1,200 statute miles, one executive from Cathay Pacific Airlines said that this model is not very suitable for international travel in Asia where the airports are fairly far apart, and, as such, C.P.A. is not quite interested. They may say yes to a 2,000-mile range version now being built.
The Trident's manufacturers said that Japan, C.P.A. and Thailand are their possible customers at the moment, and
Page 298
1.6% from 2.5% on sales and give Denso the right to export its products to various markets through Bosch's 180 dealers.
275
According to MITI total department store sales for last September reached Yen 52,100 million, up 24% from September last year. This rate of in- crease exceeds even those reported in the same months of last year and 1961, when sales were very brisk. Clothing, sundries and foodstuffs were the dominant items in the sales increase.
From the Imagawa Securities Co. Lid, by courtesy of the Commercial Investment Co. Ltd., Hongkong.
that though this type of aircraft is suitable for internal flights in China, the Chinese are regarded to be waiting for the aircraft to have further proved its worthiness.
In the meantime, perhaps, China can improve on its airports, not many of which are presently used for jetliners. Peking is the only airport which can pre- sently take in the big international jet airliners while Shanghai, Canton, Kunming, Hankow and Tientsin are the only known civil airports which can ac- commodate to the smaller jetliners.
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