It is past 5:00 of the morning of Saturday, November 14 in Japan time that gun battle of terrorism happened in Paris. It was an event of the morning of the day when I was just going to Hamburg via Copenhagen for Intermodal Europe participation. I arrived at Narita from Yokohama in just a little over one hour and finished a departure procedure safely, and the boarding began at past 12:00. When I got on board the airbus A340 which considerably looked like a well-used and it was waiting a takeoff an in-flight announcement requested us to go out of the plane once due to machine parts trouble. It became the one-day opening that this was tough. The flight of 12:30 was cancelled. The announcement said that each passenger took lunch respectively as the airline bore its cost. The departure time was postponed again and again, 2 pm to 3 pm. At last a boarding place turned into 1F which moved to an airplane by bus. I heard that a traveled foreigner muttered that “The flight of today would be cancelled!?” In a few minutes at about 4:30 the announcement of flight cancellation was officially made. Therefore, re-entry formalities needed because we departed the country and recovered our luggage. It was changed tomorrow by a flight of 8:45. They wanted us to come to the check-in-counter at 7:00 in the morning of tomorrow as they would pay for the hotel charge but they requested us to secure the accommodation by ourselves. This was a serious situation again and the passengers more than 250 would look for a hotel all at once. I telephoned all the hotels near Narita Airport listed in the directory one after another but it was in vain. No vacant room at all. Therefore, I visited several hotel agencies but refused all fully booked. I hit on a good idea to ask a taxi driver to take to any hotel he know and therefore, I had been waiting for a taxi at the taxi stand but no taxi appeared due to a rain. I reluctantly came back to the inside of the terminal and found one travel agency at the corner of the terminal and eagerly asked them for the room. Fortunately I secured one of 2 rooms left for the day at the hotel within 10 minutes of the hotel bus. The cold night rain was felt to be still colder. I knew the news of synchronized terrorist attacks of Paris in the hotel where I stayed at. “I go to Hamburg but is it all right from now on?” Uneasiness flashed but I was relieved a bit because I didn’t take the flight via Brussels or Paris. On the other hand I regretted the current situation a bit “How this terrible situation turned out?” “I might not encounter such hardship if I would delay departure one day or made the usual airplane company”.
There was already 100m long line waiting for checking in for Copenhagen when I arrived at the airline check-in counter at 7:00 next morning. It was 8:00 that check-in was over. The departure time of 8:45 was approaching. However, they just replied me to confirm the boarding time at the counter of the boarding gate. At 9:00, 10:00 and the time passed. They told us to take lunch at their cost but I was not hungry because I was a bit irritated. One of passengers said that today’s flight might be cancelled again? I was so worry about my appointment with a person in Hamburg if I could not take a flight that day. On the other hand, the boarding of the same number of the flight of the day began in the other side. Is this what’s called rule? They could not get on board passengers with priority who cancelled on the previous day. The reason of the delay was to change an altimeter and speedometer in malfunction but it was taking time that they obtained the right screws to fasten them. When one small screw is not correct, the jet of a modern precision instrument cannot fly. I wanted to thank the airline company for ensuring the security but I was in a complicated state of mind but the airplane took off somehow safely for Copenhagen at 13:30. The monitor on the back of the front seat showed that “The 2nd most punctual Airline in the world”. I understood somehow that they didn’t say they are No.1 punctual in the world. A great effort is necessary to be No. 1 in the world. It is necessary for us to prepare for an unexpected situation in our life and work.
It was my long-time dream to go to Copenhagen. It was moved that I could see the headquarter building of Maersk Line, the biggest shipping line in the world from the Copenhagen Port. The greatly long white wall of the number of the buildings looked like a huge fort and seemed to symbolize the shipping line which dominated the world. It was also impressive to see the unique-shaped opera house which AP Moller gave a fund. Denmark possesses 443 islands and is big when they include Greenland but the mainland itself is a little less than a one-ninth of Japan. The population is 5,630,000. This small country produces many world-famous companies like Maersk Line, Bang & Olufsen (High quality audio system maker), Lego (Toy maker), Royal Copenhagen (Pottery and porcelain maker), which leads the world. They are an agriculture export country. Half of the Japanese pork is imported by Denmark. There are many points for Japan to learn from Denmark. They could encourage us. They are one of countries which I continuously want to pay attention.
Syrian refugees more than 100 have been arriving at the Hamburg railroad station every day. There were 2~3 police officers with a submachine gun but the guard was not heavy as Japan. 4~5 people looked like plain-clothes police officers or volunteers with the name tag gave them instruction. Germany announced that they will accept 1 million refugees. Middle Eastern person considerably seemed to stand out in the town. Their generosity is noteworthy.
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Intermodal Europe began in Hamburg Messe from Nov. 17th (Tue) to 19th (Tur). We put a poster of EF International Ltd as a Japan agency at the corner of the exhibit space of the MCC Tank this time. A merger of Triton and TAL was reported on November 10. A container company of 5 Million TEU will be established. The big exhibition space of TAL got a lot of looks conspicuously right after such news. CMA CGM got preferential negotiating rights of the purchase of NOL (NOL purchased by CMA CGM was concluded on Dec. 8) and when a merger of China Shipping and COSCO (China State Affairs Administration approved a merger of COSCO and China Shipping on Dec. 11 and the new name is China Cosco Shipping Group) was whispered. Intermodal Europe didn’t seemed to be active under the reflection of the present market of shipping lines, leasing companies and container makers. I really expect Japanese major 3 shipping lines (NYK, MOL, K Line) more positively as a leader of world shipping lines.
I want MOL and K Line to become a member of COA (Container Owners Association) as well as NYK to lead the shipping lines of the world to the right direction.
New container price has been lowered to $1,500 per 20f. The number of new containers in the factory in China is over 1.1 million TEU. China & Asian depot stock has been swelling out day by day. Some major leasing companies seem to have got into trouble of accepting containers from shipping lines in China & Asian depots these days. Leasing companies may got into the worst situation of no depot capacity in some Asia depots since the Lehman shock? Leasing companies will encounter the hardship from now on as well as shipping lines. I cannot deny the further takeover, the possibility of the merger. Everybody tends to run about for scale expansion in the world. I am convinced that the small leasing company could survive if they could get back to original service which could provide shipping lines with a good deal of flexible services.
Our business result and 7 agencies business have been smoothly expanding in 2015. It goes without saying that selling business of new containers and 2nd hand containers have grown. Security Seal of TydenBrooks has increased sales smoothly from domestic major companies (K Line, JAL etc). Generator of Thermo King accounts for shares more than 60% in North America. I really wish in earnest Japanese 3 major lines would use Magnum Plus that could only provide with -40 degrees Celsius of cooling power and I am confident that they could be delighted to use Magnum Plus with increase of their reefer cargo. We are receiving the order of Sliding Door Containers these days. It is the impression that it took 5 years before admitting the value of it at last. All is so. It takes time. We would like to make an effort to have many people understand the good point sequentially. 20f Sliding Door Container has been put in the Kamomecho CFS in Yokohama for display in favor of Nissin. We sincerely request come to see it if anybody has an interest in it. It is good to know that Mirai Hi-Tec has been receiving parts of chassis these days. We delivered MCC tank to a brewing maker of Kyushu last month and they were satisfied with the quality. MCC has till specialized in size of 24~26 KL but we are convinced that you are satisfied with a price, quality by all means. Finally UES, leasing company that is a small company of over 300,000 TEU in fleet size has caused a little problem due to not many depot stock when shipping lines want to lease containers. However, they are quite a serious company and they have been providing shipping companies with good quality service steadily without chasing a scale. I really expect the day comes when many shipping lines happily lease UES containers sometime. Their container quality is good so that they have got the popularity on their used containers these days.
As a result, EF International was able to achieve sales more than double of the last year on the coattails of the support of our customers and 12 excellent staff this year. We will plan the staff reinforcement next year. We want to plan the improvement of service that customers are satisfied with EFI to handle these 7 agencies business still more as One Stop Service. We will take full responsibility for our products and service. We want to provide Solution for our customers who have worry and trouble so that they would feel relieved and can entrust EF International.