Eight major Japanese trading houses and shipping lines are set to join MarineNet, a general web site for shipping and shipbuilding information, as shareholders. Preparing to subscribe to MarineNet's capitalization increase, scheduled for late August, are Mitsubishi Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation, Nissho Iwai Corporation, Hyundai Corporation, Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), Fuji Trading, Shoei Kisen Kaisha and Yamamizu Shipping.
The current MarineNet stockholders are Itochu Corporation, Kaiji Press, Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line), Mitsui & Co., Marubeni Corporation, Hitachi Ltd. and Fujitsu Ltd.

MarineNet will be the first B2B site to have all of Japan's major trading companies and shipping lines as shareholders. Hyundai Corp., trading arm of South Korea's Hyundai Group, will be the first non-Japanese company to have a stake in MarineNet. MarineNet seeks to spread its service network to Korea and other parts of Asia. Fuji Trading is Asia's largest trader in ship equipment. Shoei is a leading Japanese ship operator, while Yamamizu is a major tramper broker. Besides providing the latest shipping and shipbuilding news supplied by Kaiji Press, MarineNet serves to run its own market for ship charters (Virtual Chartering) and trading in secondhand vessels (Ship Auction).

It added Drewry Shipping Consulting of Britain as information provider on July 4. MarineNet began operating at www.marine-net.com on a commercial basis this month after a trial run from April. MarineNet will increase its Y300 million capital by Y80 million next month.

Two major trading houses, Mitsui & Co. and Marubeni Corp., have decided to join marine-net.com, Japan's first maritime Internet portal, bringing the number of corporate participants to eight.
The six original participants in the new information service and e-commerce provider are Itochu Corp., Kaiji Press, the publisher of Seaborne Commerce ASIA, Mitsui OSK Lines, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Hitachi Ltd. and Fujitsu Ltd. Mitsui Managing Director Jun Tashiro and Marubeni Managing Director Akira Matsuda made the following comments on their participation:

Comment by Tashiro
"As a provider of information from Asia and as a pioneer in the e-marketplace for shipbuilding and shipping industries, marine-net.com has an immense role to play. I do hope that marine-net.com will develop smoothly and undergo a major transformation in future."

Comment by Matsuda
"In this fast changing business environment, the shipping and shipbuilding industries are poised to make full use of information technology (IT) as an important tool that forms the 'Three Ts' along with LT (logistic technology) and FT (financial technology)."
"It is highly significant that marine-net.com has begun business as a transmitter of information from Japan, which assumes an important position in the world. I hope the new venture will make a major contribution toward the development of the shipping and shipbuilding industries in Asia and the world."

Japan's first maritime Internet portal, marine-net.com, has started business following the completion of various procedures for incorporation on March 8.
The new Internet-based information service provider, a joint venture of Japan's six leading companies in their respective areas of business, will deliver integrated business information and on-line trading to subscribers.

Banding together in the pioneering project are Itochu Corp., Kaiji Press, the publisher of Seaborne Commerce ASIA, Mitsui OSK Lines, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Hitachi Ltd. and Fujitsu Ltd.

President Takanobu Furuta of the Tokyo-based marine-net.com said, "We are ready to open the website for information services in early April, to be followed by a full-fledged operation in May.

The nascent marine Internet portal, capitalized at 300 million YEN, will offer news on the shipping and shipbuilding industries while setting up an "auction site" and a "charter site" to provide customers with ready access to the secondhand ship market and the ongoing relationships between cargoes and ships.
Itochu Corp., Japan's major trading company, played the pivotal role in bringing the joint venture to reality. Itochu President Uichiro Niwa made the following comments at a joint press conference held in Tokyo on March 15.

"The wave of the IT revolution is rapidly changing the basic concept of not only consumer businesses but also business-to-business (B2B) commerce, making the provision of customer services born out of fresh and innovative ideas more necessary than before. In such circumstances, I do believe that the businesses that can satisfy the various information needs of the industry, such as our marine-net.com, will be the sole winners in the harsh environment lying ahead of us."

"From a global perspective, I think Asia has now earned the distinction of being a great powerhouse in the shipping and shipbuilding industries. It is my sincere hope that the information services radiating from the new company will go far in serving not only Asia but the rest of the world, with the strong support and patronage of all those concerned."

Furuta echoed by saying, "The introduction of our marine network service will provide instant and easy access to whatever is needed for conducting maritime business."

He added, "The service will also provide a venue for e-commerce such as that for chartering and used vessel transactions. Marine-net represents the birth of the first comprehensive service network of its kind in our industry. We are creating a good model for how B2B commerce will prosper in the future. The project is already enjoying industry support and encouragement far greater than we had expected. I pledge our incessant efforts in constantly meeting the adapting trends of the times and developing the market on the basis of demands and advice from our subscribers."
Positive interest in the new service is being shown by the shipping industry in particular. Representing maritime interests, Masaharu Ikuta, president of MOL, and Isao Shintani, president of K Line, made the following comments.

Masaharu Ikuta: "We are now on the threshold of the 21st century which will be characterized by IT capitalism, replacing the era of industrial capitalism. The day of e-life will come after the e-business era. Marine-net.com, which pools maritime information and wisdom, couldn't have come at a better time. I sincerely expect the new company to grow and contribute not only to the maritime industry but to human society as a whole."

Isao Shintani: "The IT revolution is drastically transforming the fabric of our social life and business activity. I am closely watching how e-commerce will develop and settle down. I am second to none in praying that marine-net.com will develop and thrive on the strength of ample input from its clientele.

Joining hands with Itochu Co., Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha(K Line), Hitachi Ltd. and Fujitsu Ltd., the Kaiji Press is launching the world's first Internet service specializing in shipping and shipbuilding news and information. The six partners are due to set up a joint company dubbed "Marine Net" in mid-February with a capital of 300 million J.Yen to go on line this coming spring. Covering all news and information needed by the shipping and shipbuilding industries, Marine Net, built on the concept "portal site," will provide its customers with the latest news to be picked up from the Japanese daily Kaiji Press as well as access to any articles published during the past year. Among its features will be the "Auction Site," describing how second-hand ships change hands on the market and the "Charter Site," columned articles delving into the relationship between cargoes and ships. Marine Net will supply news in English and Japanese simultaneously, targeting Hong Kong, Singapore, China, South Korea and Taiwan, where the shipping and shipbuilding markets are growing fast. It intends to expand for global coverage in the long range through ties with information services in Europe and the U.S.
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The shipping and shipbuilding businesses are already partly supplying information via Internet, but Marine Net is the first attempt to integrate delivery of information and on-line trade. The shipping and shipbuilding industries thrive on international deals and are expected to grow fast via Internet. Marine Net, in that context, wishes to be the front-runner in the shipping and shipbuilding sectors, aiming to build up a neutral infrastructure network.

More details of Marine Net will be announced shortly.

Lloyd's List ( Matthew Flynn Tokyo)

JAPAN'S Marine-Net has launched itself with the claim to be the first combined news and shipbroking site on the worldwide web. "We want to be the shipping portal of choice in Asia," company president Takanobu Furuta told Lloyd's List.

Marine-Net will offer a combined English and Japanese wire service from shareholder Kaiji Press. A leading maritime publisher in Japan, Kaiji has decided to close its three-year-old Seaborne Commerce Asia, an English language weekly.

The shipbroking website was developed in Singapore by founding shareholder Itochu under the banner of Virtual Chartering. Marine-Net offers a basic news service and also ship chartering and sale and purchase, but there are plans to add other functions such as bunkering, spare parts and perhaps even containers.

Now open under beta mode, marine-net.com will be officially launched for subscription from July 1.

At the outset some maritime operators in Japan were cautious about joining because of trading company Itochu's presence as a founding partner. Now Marine-Net believes it has proved itself as a commercial neutral platform as shown by the participation of Mitsui and Marubeni, which will bring the shareholders up to eight.

Among shipowners with equity stakes are Mitsui OSK and K-Line, with NYK Line apparently preferring to launch its own website.

Rounding out the six original shareholders that pumped300myen ($2.8m) into the project are Hitachi and Fujitsu. Another set of shareholders is lined up to double the company's equity.

The sale and purchase bulletin board and ship chartering will be available free to service subscribers, while the more complicated patent-applied-for process of the ship auction will cost users a 0.25% commission.

"Brokers can use the site as a sales tool," said Mr Furuta. While some shipbrokers saw the service as a threat, he believed owners and their representatives were always faced with the decision how much information to release to the market at large.

Marine-Net itself will not vet buyers and sellers in any of the transactions. In auctions the sellers are aware of the buyers, while under the bulletin board system listing ship sales owners will post ship names together with contact details. The virtual chartering is designed to have computerised matching with identities disclosed for compatible postings by owners and charterers. The virtual chartering also has a confidentiality option.

"We cannot stop developing the site. Every week we are introducing a new idea," said Mr Furata.

He added that, while Japanese maritime operators had traditionally been very cautious about releasing market information, he believed times were changing and higher transparency was gaining wider acceptance.