Imabari Shipbuilding, Japan’s largest shipbuilder, has said it will delve its own LNG fuel tanks rather than being reliant on overseas imports.

Japanese yards, along with rivals in South Korea, have been keen to create their own LNG infrastructure to avoid paying significant sums to foreign firms to use their technology.

Imabari’s president, Yukito Higaki, held a press conference yesterday in which he detailed the LNG fuelling plans as well as giving an update on the buoyant state of the shipbuilding sector. Higaki said shipbuilding demand was the best his company had experienced in more than a dozen years with the yard now marketing slots as far our as 2025.