Junichiro Ikeda, who has worked for MOL for almost 39 years, admits the company had a big problem. Its core activity of container shipping was also, he says, “the Achilles heel of the business”.
“Our main business was liners, but we had a serious issue: maintaining competitiveness in global competition since containerisation,” the president and chief executive tells TW+.
In the past, MOL was able to maintain its international competitiveness by recruiting non-Japanese mariners, Ikeda says, but it was no longer enough.
