Nippon Yusen KK, a Japanese shipping and logistics firm, announced on that it wants to invest 1.2 trillion yen ($8.8 billion) over the next four years, of which 290 billion yen will go towards decarbonizing its ships in order to assist the country reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
In addition to announcing its new business strategy for the four years beginning in April, the company also pledged to purchase 200 billion yen's worth of its own stock over the following two years, raising its target dividend payment ratio from the current 25% to 30%.
"We want to go beyond the current framework of a comprehensive logistics company and create the value necessary for the future by deepening our core businesses and growing new businesses," President Hitoshi Nagasawa told a news conference.
Out of the 1.2 trillion yen investment budget that is anticipated, 560 billion yen will go towards LNG and dry bulk carriers, 140 billion yen will go towards logistics mergers and acquisitions, and 100 billion yen will go towards new ventures including offshore wind power, hydrogen, and ammonia.
By 2030, the company intends to construct 31 LNG-fueled vessels in addition to additional vessels that will run on liquefied petroleum gas, ammonia, and methanol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its fleet.
"We plan to increase the number of LNG-fuelled vessels by around 2030, then start adding more ammonia-fuelled vessels from mid-2030s," CFO Takaya Soga said.
"For the vessels that are not easy to switch fuel, we will use bio-fuels and carbon offset," said Soga, who will become the president from April.
The 240 billion yen net profit projection for the year ending in March 2027 is less than the 1 trillion yen profit estimate for the current year.
"Business conditions in the past two years were extremely special due to disruptions of global logistics amid the pandemic," Nagasawa said.
"If you compare the new goal with our profits from pre-pandemic time, our profit is on track for a steady growth," he said.