OCEANICWING

OCEANICWING S.A.S. is a French company based in Toulouse and a subsidiary of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line). It develops Seawing, an automated towing-kite system for wind-assisted propulsion of large merchant ships. The technology comes from Airseas, which was founded in 2016 to apply aeronautics expertise to maritime decarbonisation. Airseas went into accelerated receivership, and K Line bought it out in February 2024. Development has continued under OCEANICWING.

Seawing is an automated parafoil kite flown from the ship's bow. It is launched and recovered automatically and pulls the vessel to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. The first development phase, completed in June 2025, used a 300 m² kite with a theoretical towing force of about 25 tonnes. The second phase targets a 600 m² kite with about 50 tonnes of force, which the developer compares to a typical tugboat. Bureau Veritas reviewed the phase-one performance methodology and found it appropriate and theoretically consistent with the stated objectives.

Offshore demonstration trials are planned on a large K Line bulk carrier, and the programme is expected to finish around 2027. Airseas had earlier claimed CO2 reductions of up to about 20%. The main target markets are bulk carriers and car carriers.