MOL Car & RoRo E-Commerce<=
/span> =
&nb=
sp;
![3D"mol](3D"CR35191NewsItem2_files/image008.jpg")
TOSHITAKA SHISHIDO
Senior Managing Executive Officer=
=
![](3D"CR35191NewsItem2_files/image009.gif")
Car Carriers
Plummeting Demand Necessitates an Equally Rapid Response=
Volumes are gradu=
ally
recovering, after bottoming out around April 2009. Although the market
conditions are unprecedented, we expect volumes to normalize once the
inevitable economic recovery comes. Cars are a way of life in North America=
and
Europe, so there is deep-rooted demand in those regions. Australia, meanwhi=
le,
has so far been relatively unscathed by the financial crisis and underlying
demand for vehicles is high. This is likely to be one of the quickest marke=
ts
to recover.
On top of downsiz=
ing,
we took other urgent actions to lower our costs during fiscal 2008. We avoi=
ded
night-loading where possible, adopted slow steaming and various other optio=
ns
for operating vessels more efficiently, and selected the most cost-effective
routes to sail.
Resilient and Buoyant — Prospects Going Forward
MOL has two key
strengths that enable it to play an active part in car transportation:=
=
An extensive
worldwide network and a large fleet. Both are essential to meet the needs of
automakers who are developing globally, with elaborate marketing plans to
expand their businesses. We plan to further raise the percentage of our fle=
et
that doesn’t call in at Japanese ports at all to capitalize on expect=
ed
demand growth worldwide. To enhance
customer satisfaction further, we set up a company in India to trans=
port
vehicles over land domestically in fiscal 2008.
Now, we are also
transporting ultra large mining machinery, expanding our market horizon. Th=
ese
gigantic machines are dismantled and loaded onto car carriers using Mafi
low-bed trailers. This opens up the possibility of capturing demand for
shipping more heavy machinery when natural resource development takes off
again.
=
![](3D"CR35191NewsItem2_files/image010.gif")
The Car Carrier Prominent Ace
<=
/span>
The volume of
vehicles shipped worldwide increased to about 14 million units in 2007. Bas=
ed
on this increasing trend since the beginning of this century, we were geari=
ng
up to transport 3 million vehicles in fiscal 2008, assuming a market of 15
million units. And until October 2008, we were on target. Thereafter,
year-on-year demand plummeted by as much as 60% in January 2009. We have
experienced downturns before, but nothing like this.
=
As demand nosediv=
ed,
we were forced to rethink our plans and restructure our fleet.
When the situatio=
n became
clear in October 2008, we acted immediately. Thanks to quick decision-making
facilitated by our simple organizational structure, we scrapped 15 ships and
returned 4 others in fiscal 2008. Thereafter, we initiated phase-two of a
downsizing plan, which will see us scrap 6 vessels and cold lay-up 11 other=
s in
fiscal 2009.
=
Fleet downsizing =
will
thus continue through March 2010 in line with industry demand, resulting in
around 80 vessels by March 2010; we had planned to have 105 ships by that s=
tage
under MOL ADVANCE.
=
While we are
downsizing our fleet, we will be very careful not to go overboard, because =
we
must ensure that we are ready for a recovery in demand and are able to resp=
ond
to one in a minimum amount of time and cost effectively.<=
/p>
![3D"MOL](3D"CR35191NewsItem2_files/image006.gif")
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