In April 2010, the Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works of the Mitsubishi Group delivered the heavy lift module transport ship Yamatai to the Japanese shipping company NYK-Hinode Line . It has a smooth main deck 120 meters long and 36 meters wide behind the front deck structure , on which the ship can load two roll on / roll off modules weighing up to 3000 tons via ramps. Module transporters mainly load large, prefabricated components for seaward structures in the oil and gas industry, but are also used for other industrial buildings. A second ship of the same type, the Yamato ( 大 和 , after the province of Yamato as a possible successor to Yamatai), was delivered at the end of November 2010.
The Yamatai is the first ocean-going ship in the world to have an Air Lubrication System (ALS), which can save up to 10% fuel. The ALS was jointly developed by NYK and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and works with air compressors that pressurize the bottom of the ship with air to reduce the underwater resistance of the hull. The decision to use the Air Lubrication System for the first time in the construction of a modular transporter was favored by the typical design with a shallow draft and a relatively wide hull in comparison with ships of similar size, which led to low ground pressures and thus low power requirements for the compressor system.
