Japan Marine United Corp., Japan’s No. 2 shipbuilder, said demand for offshore supply and support vessels has stalled after crude oil plunged to a six-year low. The company, formed by the merger of shipbuilding units at steelmaker JFE Holdings Inc. and IHI Corp., is the sole Japanese producer of anchor-handling tugs for drilling rigs and platform supply vessels. Interest in these vessels from customers has become quiet, JMU President Shinjiro Mishima said yesterday in an interview at its Tokyo headquarters. “They have changed to a ‘wait-and-see stance.’ We started to see this trend at the end of last year and into the beginning of this year.” JMU and rivals began to see demand slow as excess global supply saw oil prices more than halve since June. Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the biggest deepwater producer, is reviewing its $220 billion, five-year investment plan. While the recent oil plunge […]