I got up at 5:00 a.m. and I asked the front to have gotten a taxi in a hotel at 6:15 and arrived at terminal ONE before 7:00. After that I hurried to the airline counter first of all. Because I wanted to get an aisle seat somehow on my return flight because I had been booked at the middle of the seat for 3 persons for going to and from Singapore. I was embarrassed with no motion at all in the middle of the seats between 2 large youths on the coming 2 days ago. However, unfortunately the return to Narita was full so that no change of the seat was possible. If the seat was no changeable I asked them a favor to get me sit at least between women because it would give me some room to move but I was declined at all. However, I went to my seat after boarding was started and I found a young woman sitting next to my seat on both sides. I tried to sit there in a cheerful manner saying to myself “ I am lucky!” but suddenly I heard the voice of a man from the side that “ it is my seat!? It was the real mistake as I had taken the wrong seat. Narita was cold in winter with 6 degree C in temperature after my hardship of 6 hours. I yearned for Singapore of that another world. May an airplane company hearing the slightly impossible demand of the passenger like the man come out if I say daringly?
On the other hand, I visited Ocean Network Express (ONE) in Singapore. New head office uses East Wing 16 & 17 floor of Marina ONE of the Marina bay of the new development district. The security has been perfect as I thought there was not the further security. I told at a reception desk of the number of people to visit ONE and got the card and got into the elevator. There was not the button of each floor in the elevator and stopped at the floor automatically when I insert a card. It was my first experience. In the circumference of the building of ONE, some high-rise buildings were still in the middle of the construction. It is the place of the superb view which you could look around the busy street of downtown in Marina gulf with the Merlion, Singapore from the ONE office. I felt vigor and heat from staff of ONE office as they would get into the full-scale activity from April. The staff of 3 companies will join the company called ONE. It is a big trial that the staff power which have been cultivated in different corporate culture should be sublimated into one powerful undulation. It will be a lineup of 700 staff in total in the future including about 100 Japanese staff. They are the mixed team consists of NYK, MOL, K Line so that there are some acquaintances of Japanese staff and local staff respectively. They are requested to make use of the wisdom of 3 Lines for ONE and I want them to jump into the world with not the continuation for the existing thing but with an innovative thought.
At present 10 major shipping lines (Maersk, MSC, CMA-CGM, COSCO, Hapag-Lloyd, Evergreen, Yang Ming, NYK, MOL, K Line）occupy 87% out of container operation capacity of the whole 67 container liner companies in the world. But they will occupy a little less than 90% of shares in marine transportation with the major eight companies when 3 Japanese liner sections will integrate into ONE after April. The major shipping company competes fiercely by the building of the huge containership. They work to acquire price competitiveness by reducing cost per One Slot by upsizing of the containership.
However, the current cargo moves from production place to the consuming place.
The surplus containers pile up there. It is a kind of fate of containerization. According to the data of a certain global research company, the number of idling containers in the world of 34,660,000 TEU counts for 21% against the whole world container transport volume, 162,310,000 TEU in 2017. The excess of import from Asia is 10,670,000 TEU on Asia, North America route. The excess of import from Asia is 7,980,000 TEU on Asia, European route. Therefore the shipping company has to return a container from the idling place to the demand place by the empty positioning. The empty positioning expense amounts to 5-8% of the operation expense of the shipping line. Making a tentative calculation, the expense has come to US$15~20 billion.
Therefore how do you return a container to the demand place with little cost? The significance is big. One is to find the cargo at the idling place or nearby to return them with the cargo to the demand place. Wastepaper, abolished plastic, iron scraps. There must output much wastepaper, abolished plastic, iron scraps in the consuming place. It is a big serious body blow in this sense to each shipping line that China limited the import of abolished plastic at the end of last year. If quality of the abolished plastic has a problem we could make it good quality to meet China regulation to start to export it.
It is worth working together between the public and private sectors.
On the other hand, it is important to regenerate many items such as leftover from a convenience store and each family to be reproduced to fodder, the scrap wood of the abandoned house, thinning wood to be made sellable wood chip to be easily burnt for domestic use or export. It must be required next that we should convert the good harvest of vegetables, a surplus thing of the big catch of Fish and shellfish into the products which could be kept long for preservation and turn them for export if there are remaining or we should beat our brains that we utilize the extra thing and white elephant of the products to be turned into the useful things for the purpose of export after a public and private sectors together as one. There may be somebody needing it in the world. Some elements of the turning point of the times are connected with each other and may realize the thing which was not made so far. The junk cars have been exported more than 1 million every year to the other countries ex Japan. Most of the 2nd hand car should be exported by the car carrier but some of them are used with an old container. This helps the solution to surplus container from Japan, too.
Changing a viewpoint, We may have to think seriously by utilizing the holding ISO container to solve the issue of surplus container. Containerizaiton comes out and half a century is going to pass. The folding container has been accomplished the trial and error now. It looks good even if a new box, an innovative container come out to solve fate of the container use as much as possible.
As for the new container price of the end of February, $ 2,200 per 20f and the factory stock is about 700,000TEU. For brisk cargo movement of this year, the container lease company and the container maker are ready to support shipping lines.