According to foreign media reports, Japan's Sumitomo Heavy Industries Marine Engineering shipyard has decided to stop accepting new orders for commercial vessels.

The Yokosuka-based shipyard, best known for its Afra type tankers, will exit the business after completing the new shipbuilding order work it is currently working on.

Parent company Sumitomo Heavy Industries said that despite various measures, including limiting the number of ship orders accepted and overhauling the shipbuilding system, maintaining the shipbuilding business remains challenging.

In a statement, the company said that in the face of rising prices of materials and equipment such as steel, large fluctuations in ship prices, a widening gap between supply and demand and continued fierce competition from overseas companies, the company has conducted extensive reflection on the future of the shipbuilding business, and therefore decided not to accept new orders for general merchant ships from the 2024 fiscal year.

After-sales service and ship repair operations for previously built vessels will continue. The company added that they plan to advance the commercialization of the offshore wind base as well as related vessels in the renewable energy sector.

Since building its first freighter in 1907, Sumitomo Heavy Industries has set several world records, including building the world's first LNG-powered car carrier and the world's largest tonnage bulk carrier. Its exit marks the end of an era, but also reflects the global industry to green, intelligent transformation of the deep change.