Container market Report November 2012

President Obama was reelected on Nov.7. I think it is greatly significant to USA. It has truly proved that the prejudice by the color of skin is getting weak. I hardly imagined 4 years ago that the black man like Obama was nominated as a candidate of USA President, much less to have become President. Even if President Obama was reelected by close victory the USA people have been progressing in reform of their consciousness more than we think. He is the symbol of success in life and he is giving the people hope, especially for the poor. In order to give them a job he is urging producer’s goods to come around again to USA. It is his important manifesto for his reelection. I am confident that it will not be long before the flow of goods in the world will be changed after “Made in America” emphasized by President Obama should be materialized. The flow of containers will be caught up accordingly. There is a world of difference in the manifesto between USA President Obama and the Japanese prime minster changes almost every year. President Obama’s manifesto would be materialized. I sincerely wish President Obama to be successful in activating the world economy after overcoming the difficulties. You give me hope.

Japan has been exposed in the strong Yen ($1.00=JPY 79) as before. Seen the other way around it is proved that Japan has been highly evaluated in economy by the world. It is we, Japanese that elected the politicians who don’t learn from experience and spend all their time political strife. However, it is not mirror reflecting the true figure of Japanese but it is a result that we could not count on Japanese politicians who serve as an example of how not to behave. I believe that Japanese economy is till the first class. We should make the best of the strong Yen before deploring it. We should make it a good chance. It is one of effective steps to do more merger and acquisition overseas. Companies you buy could make a profit. We should invest in our strong fields of businesses. I sincerely request politicians to support the regenerative medicine and the new drug development by all means as Professor Yamanaka at Kyoto University won the Nobel Prize of the physiology or medicine prize of 2012 in Oct for developing iPS cells. I don’t think any politicians and parities have any objection for it. It is still too early to give up the power of Japan. Let’s be confident of Japan.

The freight rate to Europe is raising up in Nov. it is because each shipping line and alliance stopped partly their services and requested the shippers for raising the prices. It is one of big factors that Maersk Line, No. 1 shipping line in the world decided to raise the price in Nov. Surplus to requirement of tonnage is causing the unfair freight rate competition. The share competition in the limited market by the number of the vessels which requires huge investment would be a war of attrition. There would be not many shipping lines left after it. It would not be happy for the survivors. They would be mega carriers who could not adapt quickly to new circumstances and then would retire from the market. This has been proved by the history. It is inevitable that the shipping lines should be in friendly rivalry each other under the market of healthy competition. The shippers have also responsibility to the shipping lines operating in red because shippers get the shipping lines competing unfairly by lowering the freight rate. The shippers would get hurt if a number of shipping lines are reduced. The shippers could also enjoy the benefit if the shipping lines compete for their services in the healthy competition. The unstable freight rate would be minus to the shippers. The management of the leasing companies would be one of hints to the shipping lines. There are no leasing companies who want to sell them but no bankrupt occurred. The profitable leasing companies in 1980s and 1990s would become a M & A object. There are many leasing companies making profit of breaking a record year after year since 2002.

The major leasing companies except a few seem to have placed an order for the large number of the new production with the container makers after the Anniversary of the Foundation of China. Their order except Florence would be speculative in order to lower their production prices purchased high in 1st half? Or to spend their investment fund secured? Or to foresee 2013 demand based on the highest figure of 17 million TEU of new building vessels capacity in the history to be put in service next year? The order of Florence would go to COSCO, their parent company for L/T, who will have larger vessels next year. Other leasing companies might have already concluded L/T with other shipping lines that will have larger vessels in 2013.

On the one hand the new container factory stock in China has been piled up nearly 500,000 TEU. Container price would be around $2,250 per 20f for big buyers. This price would be the bottom. The makers would be strong. It is because many leasing companies placed an order for unexpectedly, nearly 200,000 TEU with them in the sluggish market of winder.

On the other hand leasing companies expose their problem these days. The main returnable places of the concluded L/Ts in sellers’ market would concentrate on Asia. The problem is that containers would be intensively returned in the major ports in Asia such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Busan more than their capacity. The depot space is limited and the most of leasing companies share the space. So they will have to secure the additional depot space in the remote area or inland. The leasing companies have been already struggling to shift depot surplus to other demand area by all conceivable measures to avoid any situation when they would have to refuse return of L/T containers from the shipping lines by the reason of the full of containers in their depot. It would be a serious problem if it would happen.

We are thinking of bring Sliding Door Container in Japan early next year after production in China in order to respond to the possible buyers who have strong interest in using them. Sliding Door Container of FBC patented product has the sliding door at the side and rear. EFI acts as FBC’s agent in Japan. We are enthusiastic about seizing an opportunity of carrying out a container revolution by introducing Sliding Door Containers in the market. Price difference is 10% higher than the conventional side door container but you could collect your investment for the short period of the time because of easy operation like using 2 forklifts if desired for load or unload of cargo easily and safely at the side door. It fits to LCL cargo of container. This must be a good news to people working on the loading site. We think it could contribute to reduce their hardship to great extent. If shipping companies could adopt Sliding Door Containers on a large scale I believe that they could gain an advantage among shipping lines. It requires bravery of taking a risk. I wish such an extraordinary shipping line appear in the market to adopt Sliding Door Containers. We would like to help them as hard as we can.