To little fanfare the world’s newest containerline officially started operations Sunday. Ocean Network Express (ONE), the liner giant created by the merger of the container units of Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line), is now ploughing the seas as the world’s sixth largest containerline with 1.498m slots, according to analysts Alpahliner, giving it a global market share of 6.8%.
“The creation of ONE has been a challenging process, but our planning philosophy from the start has been to take a uniform and highly disciplined approach,” the line’s CEO, Jeremy Nixon, told this site in an interview carried on Thursday. Images of the first ship to carry the new ONE colours have just emerged on social media and are carried below.
The merger of the big three Japanese lines is the latest in a dramatic wave of container consolidation that is now entering lower tiers of the container shipping structure. In neighbouring South Korea, two intra-Asia operators, Heung-A and Sinokor, are expected to reveal details of a planned container merger on Tuesday.
ONE STORKの桟橋替え。タグボートが５隻がかりでした！
#コンテナ船 #JMU呉 #oceannetworkexpress pic.twitter.com/p7b86hxMeC— ペンミ@Carpenguin (@mkiipen) March 31, 2018
