It was on April 9 that the death of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minster of Britain called as The “Iron Lady” reported here in Japan. She had rehabilitated Britain teased as “Sick man of Europe at that time by introducing free-market policies with a flurry of deregulation and as a result she had made London one of the world’s pre-eminent financial centers. It was called the “Big Bang”. She ruled for 11 years from 1979 to 1990. Her achievement had been outstanding if you see the British economy to have been successful in the financial service industry these days. Of course, there is some criticism on her competent to have taken a hard line to the working classes.
The economic bubble in Japan had erupted early 1991. Japan has been suffering from slowdown in economy for 20 years since then. Prime Minster Abe is the 15th prime minister of Japan in the past 20 years. Their average terms of office are 1.5 years. The other countries could not rely on Japan of which the Prime Minister changes quickly for such short period of time because he could not make a decision on any policies of the country. We used to talk about one of the dreamy topics in 1990s among colleagues that we might invite Ms. Margaret Thatcher ex-British Prime Minister as the Prime Minster of Japan to carry out deregulation in Japan with her indomitable resolution.
However, Britain has been in business recession since Lehman Shock in 2008. The British government has decided to elect a Canadian ex-president of Canadian Central Bank in July as the president of England Bank that is the center of the financial city of London. His ability is unknown but it should claim our attention that the British Government has taken such a decisive step to utilize a competent people across the border. We, Japanese should be more flexible in interchange of personnel with other countries. We could gain but nothing to lose. We should not hesitate to hire an able foreigner as the British Government did if it could bring us useful effect for future prospect after solving deregulation.
Mr. Carlos Ghosn of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd was a successful case. Nissan was a loss making company when Mr. Carlos Ghosn undertook the management in 1999. However, he paid off debt with interest of 2 trillion to all the banks and he shared back the domestic sale from 12% to 20% by 2003. People called it as “Ghosn” magic.
They said that the rising stock prices has caused the effect of the department stores with full of customers to buy expensive items like expensive cars as well as art, jewelry, precious metal, expensive watch and so on. It is said that Japanese companies might have close JPY 100 trillion of internal reserve. They could contribute to recover Japan economy to great extent if they would return some percentage of their internal reserve to employees because it will enhance domestic consumption. Such good business cycle will ensure Abenomics to be a true reform. Deregulation is inevitable for Japan to recover. We sincerely request Prime Minister Abe to have a decisive guts and resolution to break through it. We also sincerely request the opposition parties to support Prime Minister Abe across the parties who advocate” Abenomics” which boosts economy by inflation to overcome deflation.
The policy of new quantitative and qualitative monetary easing measures adopted by Mr Kuroda inaugurated as the Governor of the Bank of Japan in April has been making Japanese Yen weak. It is $1.00=JPY 99 on April 9 which is for the first time in 4 years. The trend in weak Yen would accelerate because the money of JPY 300 trillion from the life insurance companies would be shift from Japanese bonds to USA bonds that could yield a good return.
There is less availability of leasing containers in Japan. Shipping lines have started leasing. Therefore, some leasing companies have been letting shipping lines using one way to the limited quantity from China to the limited ports in Japan. In reaction to it the 2nd hand containers are getting in short supply in Japan. The purchase price in Japanese Yen has unfortunately increased 20% up comparing to one year ago due to depreciation of Yen. Yen has decreased nearly 6% down against US dollar in the past one week. It is a matter of time that $1.00=JPY100. The traders would face the difficulty to secure 2nd hand containers for export of the 2nd hand automobiles and its parts.
Total production volume of new containers in 2012 was about 2.7 million teu, 15.6% down comparing to the year before. Its breakdown is 2.35 teu for Dry containers, 0.12 million teu for Reefer, 0.11 million teu for Specials and 0.12 million teu for others. It has recorded the lowest in production volume since 2004 except 2009, next year of the Lehman Shock.
The container price would be in uptrend in the first half of 2012. However, in 2nd half of the year it turned down in price. Leasing companies aggressively started purchasing in 4th quarter of 2012 in order to thin the expensive purchase prices bought in the first half and speculation for 2013 demand. Therefore, the new container price has been rising in 2013. This year’s feature is that shipping lines have started purchasing their own containers before the price increase.
The major container leasing companies have kept purchasing the new containers. Their container utilization ratio has been still kept over 90% but it has been lowering by return of containers from shipping lines in the slow season of winter. The new container price is around $2,400 per 20f. Shipping lines have put many mega ships in Europe trade this year. Therefore, the freight rates in Europe trade have moved weak while in North America trade the freight rates have been improving toward the summer with prospectively recovering USA economy.
FBC patented 20f Sliding Door Containers have arrived at Osaka, Nagoya and been delivered to the buyers early April. If you want to see them please let us know as we will arrange to show you them at Osaka, Nagoya. In next week 20f Sliding Door Containers will also arrive at Yokohama. We have been already contacted by the major shipping lines and Logistic companies to see them. They are seriously considering to replace the existing side open containers or to introduce to their customers to apply it to secure their cargo share. Therefore, we would like to get it known by more logistic companies for the merit of Sliding Door Containers of easy operation on loading and unloading cargo in any situation which will save their operation cost to great extent in the long run.