Tokyo (Platts)--20Apr2011/525 am EDT/925 GMT

The massive amount of debris caused by the March 11 quake and the tsunami in Japan is forcing ships to change their routes, an industry association official said Wednesday.

Eighty percent of Japanese ships for domestic transport need to travel via the Sea of Japan instead of the Pacific Ocean due to the amount of floating debris that be dangerous to small ships of less than 499 gross tons, capable of carrying 1,700-1,800 mt of freight, an official at Japan Federation of Coastal Shipping Associations said.

There are 5,600 ships in Japan for used for domestic transportation, and 4,500 are small ships of less than 499 gross tons.

Ships larger than this category are also avoiding the Pacific route for safety, indicating that the majority of Japanese ships are taking alternative routes after the March 11 quake, the official added.

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"The debris is massive around the Sanriku coastal areas [near the quake epicenter in Miyagi prefecture] and is spreading to Hawaii," the official said, adding that the floating debris poses a risk of collision and damage because it could be easily caught up in ships' propellers. Some ship owners also fear the threat from the radiation leak at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Ships use sea water for cooling purposes, and there is a fear that contaminated water could affect crew health as well as ships, the official also said.

Ships traveling from Hokkaido via Sea of Japan to the Chiba port in Tokyo bay, for example, would be consuming twice as much fuel oil due to the longer distances traveled, the official said.

Ship owners are able to claim for financial compensation from the government. The Recovery Forum Japan 311, composed of non-government experts, has set up a working group Tuesday to study financial damage caused by the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the official said.

Ships from Russia to Japan are also taking a longer route via the Sea of Japan rather than the Pacific Ocean, Japanese ferroalloy market sources said.

In the case of cargoes from Russia, the freight increase is not major due to longer distances traveled overall, said one Tokyo trader, who estimated costs increase from Russia's Vladivostok to Japan's Yokohama port via the Sea of Japan route is 1 US cent/lb for a container cargo for various ship sizes.

Japan imports ferrochrome and ferrosilicon in container ships, and aluminum in bulk ships from Russia.

--Mayumi Watanabe, mayumi_watanabe@platts.com