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Tag: machinery

KiwiRail re-opens rail line to Napier in cyclone Gabrielle recovery milestone

The reopening of the rail line to Napier – allowing rail freight to once again get to Napier Port – is an important step for the Hawke’s Bay cyclone recovery, KiwiRail Chief Executive Peter Reidy says. Scheduled freight services resumed Monday, September 18, following a seven month pause after the rail line was badly damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Cargo that is typically carried by rail includes chilled and frozen meat, wood products such as logs, pulp and timber, food products and imported machinery and consumables used in manufacturing. Following the cyclone in February, KiwiRail reopened the Palmerston North – Gisborne Line to Hastings at the start of April. Temporary Container Terminal sites were also set up in partnership with Napier Port, transport operators and cargo customers so that freight could be railed to Hastings, then trucked to Napier.

The section of line between Hastings and Napier, particularly around Awatoto, was badly damaged in the cyclone, with track and embankments washed away, and major damage to Bridge 217, which lost piers and spans in the floods. The work included rebuilding two-metre-high embankments, replacing 800 sleepers, 140 metres of rail, laying 3,000 cubic metres of formation (the rock foundation under the tracks) and 3,500 tonnes of ballast.

KiwiRail also railed steel casings to Hastings from Christchurch for replacement bridge piers on Bridge 217 – which have been driven 30 metres into the riverbed. The rebuild of Bridge 217 is temporary, in order to get rail freight moving as quickly as possible. A permanent new bridge will be designed and built over the next couple of years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Achieves Significant First Quarter Increase in Orders and Profit

Tokyo, Japan – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (OTC: MHVYF) announced that order intake rose 75.1% year over year to 1.6 billion Yen in the quarter ended June 30, 2023. Revenue rose 12.9%, resulting in profit from business activities (business profit) of 51.9 billion Yen, a 248.1% increase from the previous fiscal year, which represents a profit margin of 5.3%. Profit attributable to owners of parent (net income) was 53.1 billion Yen, an increase of 177.1% year-over-year, with a profit margin of 5.4%. EBITDA was 85.1 billion Yen, an 80.3% increase from Q1 FY2022, with an EBITDA margin of 8.7%, up 3.3 percentage points year-over-year.

Large orders growth in Energy Systems was driven by Gas Turbine Combined Cycle (GTCC), which continues to see strong demand for both new builds and after-sales services. Business profit in the segment increased by 27.0 billion Yen due to a reduction in one-time charges in the Thermal Power businesses as well as revenue growth and improved project margins.

In Plants & Infrastructure Systems, revenue increased by 33.8 billion Yen due to contributions from Metals Machinery and Engineering, while business profit improved by 5.0 billion resulting from increased revenue in Metals Machinery as well as positive developments in Engineering and Machinery Systems’ project mix.

In Logistics, Thermal & Drive Systems, successful passthrough of cost inflation to sales prices mainly in Logistics Systems and Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) led to 14.3% increases in order intake and revenue, respectively. Cost passthroughs in these businesses also helped to raise the segment’s business profit by 15.3 billion Yen.

Most notable this quarter is the striking growth in Aircraft, Defense & Space order intake, specifically in Defense & Space, which saw orders rise by 584.1 billion Yen. This is due to large orders for missile defense systems from Japan’s Ministry of Defense as the country seeks to improve its capabilities in this area.

Rolls-Royce Secures UK Funding for Innovative Naval Autonomy Technology

Rolls-Royce (London: RR.L) has been awarded funding by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to further develop and demonstrate the Artificial Chief Engineer® technology – an autonomous machinery control system which allows Naval vessels to undertake long endurance missions with less human interaction.

Developed by Rolls-Royce, Artificial Chief Engineer® is a critical enabler for autonomous missions by acting as the equivalent of the engineering department responsible for the health and the operation of an unmanned vessel’s machinery. Navies intend to increase their use of optionally-manned and unmanned vessels to project power further for less cost by reducing reliance on manpower, allowing higher-risk or longer-endurance missions, and by lowering the procurement and operating costs of future platforms.

The funding to continue the development, has been awarded under the UK MOD’s Defence and Security Accelerator Intelligent Ship Phase Two programme, which is used to de-risk and evaluate technologies and approaches to enhance the armed forces’ technical advantage.

Rapid growth in automation, autonomy, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) has prompted the need to investigate how human-machine teaming can effectively take place. This 16-month programme aims to investigate how effective human-AI collaboration can be best exploited to improve decision-making and planning within complex operating environments.

Artificial Chief Engineer is an on-board, secure, decision-making control system designed to intelligently operate the machinery of lean-manned and unmanned naval vessels. The technology makes condition-based decisions about how best to operate the machinery – including the engines, propulsion system, electrical network and fuel system – using algorithms to optimise the ship for maximum efficiency, lowest noise, top speed or to preserve damaged equipment as required by the ship’s mission. This reduces the workload of remote operators and allows increased mission and system complexity in future unmanned ship designs.

Intelligent Ship is a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) project to develop novel and innovative technologies and concepts to facilitate the use of intelligent systems within future platforms, with potential for utilisation across defence. The aim is to de-risk and evaluate technologies and approaches to enable revolutionary future platform, fleet, and cross-domain concepts to enhance UK military advantage.

Wrapping around the Artificial Chief Engineer project will be Rolls-Royce’s Aletheia FrameworkTM. This is a ground-breaking standard it has developed to ensure that before artificial intelligence is used all ethical considerations have been fully assessed, and that once an AI is deployed, its decisions are trustworthy. The Aletheia Framework is as part of a campaign led by Rolls-Royce to improve public trust in artificial intelligence so that its full potential can be realized for good across the world.

Hawaiian Airlines to Focus on Critical Flights and Cargo Service

  • Airline to serve San Francisco and Los Angeles daily
  • American Samoa weekly starting in April

Hawaiian Airlines is reducing its April flight schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic with a commitment to continue offering its guests and cargo customers essential service within the Hawaiian Islands and between Hawai‘i and California and the U.S. territory of American Samoa.

The airline will maintain a reduced but still robust schedule of Neighbor Island flights, while bolstering all-cargo service to ensure goods continue to reach communities statewide.
 
“As Hawai‘i’s airline, we understand that our operation is essential to the state. We serve both guests who rely on us for important travel and the transportation of critical cargo,” said Hawaiian Airlines President and CEO Peter Ingram. “This has been the hallmark of our mission for 90 years and our dedication to our guests remains unchanged as we look to overcome this global crisis together.”
 
Starting Sunday, Hawaiian’s long-haul transpacific network will consist of one daily nonstop flight between Honolulu (HNL) and Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO), and one weekly flight connecting Hawai‘i to its Pacific island neighbor of Pago Pago, American Samoa (PPG). All routes will be operated with wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft.
 
The California routes present cargo opportunities to help maintain service for shippers affected by the reduction in passenger flights due to the state of Hawai‘i’s mandatory 14-day quarantine for overseas arrivals starting tomorrow in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The HNL-PPG route maintains vital service for the territory of American Samoa.
 
Guests traveling on Hawaiian’s Neighbor Island network will continue to enjoy convenient options throughout the day with 41 daily roundtrip flights scheduled for April. From Honolulu there will be 38 daily flights, including 13 to Maui, eight to Kona, seven to Kaua‘i, six to Hilo, and two each to Lāna‘i and Moloka‘i. From Maui there will be one roundtrip each to Hilo, Kaua‘i and Kona in addition to Honolulu service.

Hawaiian’s schedule reductions for April resulted from the state of Hawai‘i’s quarantine entry restriction and the ensuing drop off of travel to and from the islands. Hawaiian is operating its regularly scheduled long-haul flights through today before it begins suspending routes tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Hawaiian has expanded interisland cargo service to facilitate the movement of essential goods ranging from food to medical equipment and machinery.
 
On March 3, a fleet of all-cargo ATR-72 aircraft operated by ‘Ohana by Hawaiian began offering flights five days a week between Honolulu and Kahului (OGG) on Maui and Kona (KOA) on the western coast of the Island of Hawai‘i. The new routes add to all-cargo service launched in summer of 2018 between HNL and Līhu‘e (LIH) on Kaua‘i and Hilo (ITO) on the eastern coast of the Island of Hawai‘i.

Hawaiian also utilizes its Boeing 717 passenger fleet to carry critical, time-sensitive cargo like pharmaceuticals and Blood Bank of Hawai‘i shipments.

Hawaiian is still experiencing an unprecedented volume of calls from guests and respectfully asks that only those with immediate travel needs contact the airline for assistance. Options to reach Hawaiian’s reservations team, to make online changes to tickets, and to see a list of travel waivers are available at  Hawaiian’s COVID-19 hub.
 
The airline also explains how it is keeping employees and guests safe by disinfecting aircraft and airport spaces, modifying boarding processes to prevent congestion at the gate, and adjusting in-flight services such as by distributing disposable sanitizing wipes.

Mitsubishi Postpones SpaceJet Delivery Again, Books $4.5 Billion Special Loss

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said on Thursday it will book a 496.4 billion yen ($4.5 billion) special loss after its aircraft unit delayed the delivery of its SpaceJet regional jet for at least another year until after March 2021.

The sixth delay announced by Mitsubishi Aircraft is a fresh blow to Japan’s commercial jet ambitions and could stretch Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ finances.

The company cited the special loss as one reason for wiping out a forecast for operating profit of 220 billion yen in the business year ending March 31.

The new postponement also means an aircraft that Mitsubishi Heavy had planned to bring to market in 2013, will have to compete against a new generation of regional jets built by Brazil’s Embraer SA <ERJ>.

Japan’s biggest airline by revenue, ANA Holdings Inc., is now to take the first delivery of the jet sometime after March 2021.

Mitsubishi Heavy, which builds products ranging from nuclear reactors and ships to rockets and industrial machinery, has traditionally relied on stronger units to support weaker businesses.

“We use cashflow and borrowing to finance our projects and going forward the SpaceJet development will require further funds,” a spokesman for Mitsubishi Heavy said. The company, he added, had no plan at the moment to raise capital for aircraft development.

Government funding would not be an option for Japan’s biggest heavy machinery maker even though the SpaceJet is backed by the government because doing so would contravene World Trade Organization (WTO) rules banning taxpayer subsidies.

A spokeswoman for Mitsubishi Aircraft declined to say how much development of the SpaceJet has cost so far.

The company on Thursday said it had appointed Takaoki Niwa, the head of its U.S. operations, as its new president, replacing Hisakazu Mizutani, who will become chairman.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Kim Coghill and Christopher Cushing)