MHI grants Mitsui license to sell MET turbochargers

MET turbocharger installed in an engine manufactured by Mitsui E&S Machinery. (Photo: MHI.)

A division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has granted Mitsui E&S Holdings a license to manufacture and sell its MET turbochargers.

The MET lineup are exhaust gas type turbochargers engineered for use with diesel engines. The license, granted from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Marine Machinery & Equipment Co., gives Mitsui E&S Machinery rights to manufacture in-house all models in the MET-MB and MET-MBII series of turbochargers used in two-stroke engines.

Production will get underway with three models: MET-66MBII, MET-42MBII and MET-42MB. Plans call for the first unit to be completed early in 2023, with production to be expanded to other models when deemed appropriate, MHI announced.

Mitsui E&S Machinery has been manufacturing a single brand of large marine diesel engines ever since concluding a technical tie-up with B&W of Denmark (now MAN Energy Solutions SE) in 1926. In 2021 the company reached cumulative production of 110 million horsepower, with more than 7,000 units manufactured to date. These statistics make Mitsui E&S Machinery Japan’s foremost engine manufacturer and a world leader in the industry.

MHI-MME began marketing water-cooled turbochargers in the 1950s, and in 1965 the company developed the world’s first non-water-cooled turbocharger, precursor of the MET series. Since then, the lineup has been expanded to include numerous high-efficiency large-capacity models. To date, MHI-MME has produced more than 39,000 MET turbochargers in total. The company accounts for a near 40% share of the global market for turbochargers for two-stroke marine engines, the company said.

After concluding the new licensing agreement, going forward MHI-MME aims to strengthen its ties with Mitsui E&S Machinery in a quest to further develop business in marine engines and turbochargers for the needs of tomorrow taking into account of global warming issues.