Company attributes
Other attributes
K-Line (Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha) is a logistics and shipping company offering marine, land, and air transportation services that is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and was founded in 1919 by Kojiro Matsukata. The company was created to meet the demands for new stock boats and ships during World War I.
In 1986 Shozo Kawasaki founded Kawasaki Dockyard (now Kawasaki Heavy Industries) and Kojiro Matsukata was its president. In 1914 Kawasaki Dockyard began building stock boats for use in World War I. When the war was over there was a large decline in the demand for stock boats. Matsukata decided to make use of the ships that remained after the war to help Japan's economic development by engaging in the shipping business, leading to the creation of K-Line in 1919.
In 2019 K-Line celebrated their 100th year anniversary.
In April 1919 Kojiro Matsukata founded Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha which would later adopt the name K-Line in 1921 after the initials of three companies under its joint management; Kawasaki Kisen, Kawasaki Zosen and Kokusai Kisen. After the merger of Kawasaki Kisen, Kawasaki Zosen, and Kokusai Kisen into K-Line the company had 40-50 ships transporting raw materials and goods in the North and South American, Atlantic, African, Baltic, and Mediterranean regions. By 1926 K-Line was ranked the 13th best shipping and transportation company in the world.
After World War II K-Line had 12 ships surviving the war out of a total of 56 vessels in operation before the war. During the war K-Lines ships were destroyed in battle leading to the death of approximately 1,400 K-Line crew members. After the war ended K-Line restored the functionality of one of its most lucrative ships called the KIYOKAWA MARU, helping the company recover post World War II. K-Line quickly became the first and only shipping company in Japan offering services between Asia and North America in 1948, making it a leader in containership services post World War II.
K-Line began increasing its ability to deliver dry bulk goods and oil in the 1960's as the demand for these products increased with the industrialization of Japan. The company successfully met the Japanese demand for dry bulk goods and oil by improving its abilities to load and unload cargo ships, and by starting to manufacture specialized ship carriers. K-Line developed its first specialized iron ore carrier in 1960 called the FUKUKAWA MARU. After the increase in profits the company gained from FUKUKAWA MARU, they began making specialized transport carriers for industrial raw material and natural resources such as coal, grain, lumber, and wood chips.
In 1969 K-Line containerized its California shipping routes at the early stages of global containerization of cargo shipping; giving the company an important first mover advantage over its competition. For companies to containerize their cargo ships they required large amounts of initial capital, and Japanese companies adopted a joint management approach to building the new containerized containerships. K-Lines containerized all their main routes and launched a Far East-North American Pacific Coast containership route in 1971 that did not originate in Japan and was not destined for Japan. The Far East-North American Pacific Coast containership route was established just three years after K-Line successfully introduced their first containerized shipping route in 1969. The launch of the Far East-North American Pacific Coast containership route was considered to be a major revolution in the containership industry at the time, and helped K-Line become independent of traditional containership joint management practices in Japan.
In 1970 K-Line finished building Japan's first dedicated car carrier helping Japan overtake the United States as the worlds leading car producer by 1980. The car carrier was called TOYOTA MARU NO.10 and transported cars made in Japan to North America and brought grain back from the US when it return to Japan. The specialized car carriers began being referred to as 'Pure Car Carriers (PCCs), and in 1973 K-Line had built the worlds largest PCC.
DRIVE GREEN HIGHWAY is the premier PCC in K-Line's PCC fleet because of its environmentally friendly features focused on environmental protection and energy saving. The DRIVE GREEN HIGHWAY carrier was made at the Japan Marine United Corporation and was completed in February 2016 as part of K-Line's 'Drive Green Project'. Compared to previous PCCs made by K-Line the DRIVE GREEN HIGHWAY PCC is capable of carrying 20% more vehicles, producing 25% less carbon emissions, producing 50% less nitrogen oxide emissions, and reduce sulfur oxide emissions by 90%.
In 2016 DRIVE GREEN HIGHWAY was given the Ship of the year award for its environmental performance for reducing C02, S0x, and N0x emissions. The ship uses a combination of solar power generation panels, exhaust heat recovery systems, gas re-circulation devices, and S0X scrubbers to reduce its environmental impact.
K-Line made the decision to build the worlds first LNG carrier after seeing the demand for alternative energy sources increase dramatically during the first oil crisis. In1983 K-Line completed building their first liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier called the BISHU MARU. K-Line worked with other Japanese shipping companies to build BISHU MARU and two other LNG carriers under the Badak project.
The K-Line Environmental Vision 2050 is K-Line's plan for following a long term set of operation guidelines concerning environmental conservation. To fulfil their company's environmental impact goals they are focusing on improving and mitigating their risks and environmental challenges. They have identified four issues related to their operations and the environment:
- Marine pollution and the ecosystem
- Energy resources
- Global warming
- Air pollution
K-line is addressing these four issues by mitigating and actively avoiding transportation accidents, diversifying energy sources, suppressing greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing air pollution. K-Line plans on having their companies systems running on LNG, hydrogen, fuel cells, and renewable energy by 2050, reducing their C02 emissions by half, and establish a zero emission ship building process.
In 2015 K-Line reduced their C02 emissions by 10% from their 2011 emission levels, introduced LNG-fuelled carriers in 2019, participated in the Wind Challenger Project in 2009 for building freight carriers with rigid sails capable of harnessing wind energy and reducing freight carrier fuel consumption, and constructed a cold storage renewable solar energy building in 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand.
The company has expanded into two branches, K-Line America and K-Line Tokyo. They are able to provide services and capabilities such as containership, dry bulk carrying, car carriers, LNG carriers, liquefied gas new businesses, tanker transportation, energy development services, terminal operations, and logistical services.
K-Line's containership services are offered globally. They transport raw materials such as coal, iron ore, grain, woodchips, and pulp. They transport fully built cars, construction machinery, and static cargoes everywhere around the globe.
In April 2018 three container shipping companies merged together to form a new company called Ocean Network Express (ONE). The three companies participating in the merger were K-Line, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and NYK Line.
K-Line offers dry bulk carriers for transporting raw materials (coal, Iron ore, woodchips, pulp, wheat, soybeans, corn, etc...). The company's dry bulk carriers are focused primarily on transporting raw materials bound for Japan, but they also transport goods to China, India, some developing countries, and trilaterally in the Atlantic region.
K-Line is developing their liquefied gas (LNG and LPS) carrier business, and providing marine transportation of crude oil, oil products, and other petrochemical products. The company uses its LNG carriers for medium and short-term contracts serving global markets, including trilateral transportation.
In 1935 K-Line completed building their first large-scale oil tanker, and their first LPG tanker was built in 1974. K-Line oil tankers deliver petroleum products domestically in Japan and to overseas customers.
K-Line began offering energy and offshore business development services in 2020.
The logistical services offered by K-Line include diversified transportation services such as ocean cargo freight, air freight, and sea freight, freight forwarding, land transportation, warehousing, and buyer consolidation services.
K-Line reached an agreement with Hiroshima University, the National Institute of Maritime, Port and Aviation Technology, and Marubeny Corporation to work on artificial intelligence providing analysis of maritime logistics and shipping market conditions. They utilize machine learning and deep learning technology to find big data patterns to make predictions.
In 2018 K-Line, Misui O.S.K. Lines, and NYK Line merged to form a new business entity called Ocean Network Express (ONE). ONE consists of a unified containership and overseas container terminal business. It controls more than 250 ships around the world. The merger gives Ocean Network Express control a fleet size of 1,440,000 TEU (sixth largest total carrier capacity in the world at the time of the merger accounting for about 7% of market share), 85 service loopers, and an operational network of more than 200 major ports around the world.
The stakes of Ocean Network Express are divided based on the carrier size of the three companies merging together. NYK own 38% with a fleet capacity of 592,000 TEU, K-Line and MOL own 31% each with fleet capacities of 358,000 and 491,000 TEUs.
In April 1925 SS Raifu Maru, a ship built by Kawasaki Dockyard and own by K-Line, sank in a large storm on its way from Boston, Massachusetts, to Hamburg, Germany. The ship sank approximately 400 miles from the coast of Boston. All of the ships cargo and crew were never recovered from the sea. It is believed the ship sank due to unsecured cargo that made the ship sway more than usual side to side during the storm.
An article titled 'A sailor’s life – 65. Death at sea: RMS Homeric and Raifuku Maru' claims a 9 NNE gale shifted the ships grain cargo at 5am in the morning and left the crew clinging to the rails of the ship as it began sinking into the surging sea. A US ship called the Homeric received an SOS message relayed from Halifax, Nova Scotia originally from SS Raifuku Maru to. Homeric showed up an hour before SS Raifuku Maru fully sank into the Atlantic ocean and the crew aboard the Homeric was unsuccessful in locating any surviving crew members of the SS Raifuku Maru.
On July 23, 2018 a car carrier owned by K-Line, called the Makassar Highway, crashed in to the southern coast of Sweden near an archipelago north of Vastervik. The ship had been travelling on an incorrect route for several hours before the ship ran aground. The carrier was carrying 1,325 cars and over 300,000 litres of oil. Makassar HIghway was bound for the Swedish port of Sodertaljie.
According to the Swedish coast guard approximately 14,000 litres of oil spilled into the sea as a result of the crash. The Swedish coast guard estimated the spilled oil will was up on between 30 to 50 islands, cobs and skerries within the Tjust Archipelago.
The chief officer of the Makassar Highway carrier was arrested after the crash and was released a few days later and fined SEK 3,000 for negligence in maritime traffic and intoxication.
On June 15, 2019 the Diamond Highway K-Line carrier burst into flame due to an unknown cause leading to the crew of 25 abandoning the ship in the South China Sea. The carrier caught fire in the Reed Bank area northwest of the Philippines, and the crew was picked up at sea by another carrier heading to Thailand.
No injuries were reported due to the fire or abandoning ship. A spokes person made the following public statement addressing the ship catching fire and the state of its crew members:
K-Line, the charterer of the vessel MV Diamond Highway, can confirm all crew members have disembarked the vessel and are unharmed. According to the shipowner, the vessel is currently under tow and the Philippines coast guard is monitoring the situation closely.
On April 5, 2020 a 55-year old Bulgarian cabin master of a K-Line car carrier en route to Hai Phong Vietnam from Laem Chabanh was found dead in his living quarters; likely due to a heart attack. The cause of death remains unknown, but is thought to be a natural death. The authorities were concerned about the death being related to the coronavirus, and banned all crew members from leaving the ship until the ship was disinfected and each member found not to have the SARS-CoV-2 virus. No crew members tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 after testing.