An employee uses a torch to work on the underside of a ship’s hull at Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co.’s shipyard in Chiba Prefecture in a file photo. --Bloomberg

MITSUI Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Japan’s second-largest shipbuilder by sales, forecast profit will rise 64 percent in three years, aided by stronger demand.

The shares gained the most in two weeks.

Operating profit may reach ¥54 billion in the year through March 2011, from ¥33 billion estimated for the year just ended, the Tokyo-based company said Tuesday in a statement.

Sales are forecast to rise 27 percent to ¥800 billion in three years, from ¥630 billion.

Mitsui Engineering, which has a four-year backlog of orders, plans to invest ¥53 billion in the next three years to expand capacity to meet record demand for vessels.

The company is counting on rising sales to counter higher costs for steel and a stronger yen that erodes repatriated overseas earnings.

Mitsui Engineering shares rose 5 percent to ¥292 at the 11 a.m. break on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, compared with a 1 percent gain in the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average.

Global shipbuilding capacity may reach 125 million gross tons in 2015, at least 2.3 times more than demand, according to a March 12 presentation from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Japan’s third-largest shipbuilder by sales.

Mitsui Engineering’s ship division generated sales of ¥265 billion last fiscal year, representing 42 percent of its total revenue, according to an October 31 estimate by the company.

Shipbuilding at Mitsubishi Heavy and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Japan’s two largest makers of heavy machinery, accounts for about 9 percent of their total sales. (Bloomberg)

OSG expands RP operations

AMERICAN shipping firm OSG Ships management Manila Inc. said it has expanded its Philippine operations by having its own building to have the capacity for training more seafarers to be dispatched to its new vessels. 

MAGSAYSAY-CONTROLLED Lorenzo Shipping Corp.’s net income grew last year, but mostly as a result of reducing its cost of services rather than increasing its revenue freight base.

MITSUI Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Japan’s second-largest shipbuilder by sales, forecast profit will rise 64 percent in three years, aided by stronger demand.

DOOSAN Engine Co., the world’s second-largest maker of marine engines, forecast sales to increase 52 percent this year to a record as shipbuilders work through almost four years of backlog orders for new vessels.