After two years of preparations and gaining regulatory approvals the Ocean Network Express (ONE) has finally been launched. The partners are the three major Japanese international carriers with NYK owning 38%, K Line and Mitsui OSK each holding 31%. ONE is launching its first 33 services this month and will eventually operate 85 service loops with 1.4 million TEU of capacity serving more than 200 ports globally as the sixth largest ocean carrier in the world. Dedicated to operate between Asia and Europe, with over 20,000 TEU capacity MOL Triumph is at the upper end of the size of vessel that will operate in the initial ONE fleet.

Built by Samsung Heavy Industries, South Korea
Owned by Mitsui OSK Lines
Operated by Ocean Network Express
Delivered in 2017
LOA 400m
Beam 58.8m
GRT 100,146 tons
DWT 210,678 MT
Capacity 20,146 TEU

 

The ONE holding company is in Tokyo but with the global operating headquarters in Singapore. Regional headquarters are in London UK; Richmond, Virginia; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Hong Kong. The company philosophy is that “ONE does not aspire to be the largest carrier in the market, just large enough to survive and yet small enough to care”, also ONE aim is “to be a global company that happens to be Japanese, rather than a Japanese company that happens to be global”. The merging of the three Japanese carriers, each with more than a century of home grown culture is a major undertaking, driven primarily by the financial necessity in order to be competitive. Mr. Nobuo Ishida, President & Regional Head of North America, Ocean Network Express (North America) Ltd Inc., is responsible for the company’s performance in the USA and Canada.

Top 6 ocean carriers by capacity

Rank	Company	Capacity (TEU)	Market Share
1	A.P. Moller-Maersk	4,147,949	18.9%
2	Mediterranean Shipping Co.	3,220,548	14.7%
3	COSCO Shipping (+ OOCL)	2,586,168	11.8%
4	CMA CGM	2,519,633	11.5%
5	Hapag-Lloyd	1,578,966	7.2%
6	Ocean Network Express	1,498,992	6.8%
Total		15,552,256	70.9%

 

 

The company has adopted an imaginative cherry blossom magenta as its future brand colour, the above pictures being indicative of vessel and container appearance. The cherry blossom tree is symbolic of springtime in Japan. The company is taking the forward looking view that “as a marketing strategy, creative signs, logos and colours are necessary to be easily recognizable. ONE colour and appearance are only part of the equation to stand out in the container shipping trade, and to represent the new that is emerging. Cherry blossom magenta is therefore just a symbol to convey a larger concept and idea for the shipping world, that needs to change dynamics by becoming a more visible and a less obscure industry for its final customers”.