Long-Term Contract Inked with International Paper (IP)
March 1, 2004
NYK Bulkship (USA) Inc. of the NYK Group has recently concluded a long-term contract with International Paper Company (IP), the world's largest paper manufacturer based in Connecticut, U.S., for the continuous transport of wood chips.
Details are as follows:
| Contract period | : |
3 years (with an option for extension) |
Transport quantity |
: | About one million tons of eucalyptic chips per year |
| Starting date | : | Early 2004 |
| Route | : | Continuous voyage from Brazil to the U.S. Gulf |
| Ships | : | 2 exclusively assigned wood chip carriers |
IP is the world's largest paper manufacturer boasting annual sales of US$20,386 million (as of 2002).
The U.S. firm has long been involved in a eucalyptus-planting project in northern Brazil with the object of supplying wood chips, produced there, to IP's paper mills in the U.S. The trial transport of eucalyptic chips from Brazil to the U.S., undertaken last autumn, proved successful. Consequently, IP decided to annually transport about one million tons of wood chips to the U.S. on a full scale from early 2004, and recently awarded a long-term contract for the continuous transport of wood chips to NYK Bulkship (USA).
The annual transport of one million tons of wood chips requires the continuous dedicated service of two wood chip carriers, which will thus make a total of about 25 voyages per year.
The latest contract is the first-ever long-term continuous transport contract to be concluded by a shipping company with a foreign papermaking enterprise. As such, it marks a significant step forward in the implementation of NYK's policy for the global expansion of bulk and energy transport, which was announced in May last year as part of the long-term group management vision "Forward 120."
NYK is determined to continue to develop its overseas business with added vigor in addition to the domestic business that forms the core of its activities.