ONE says: 'We sold out', but faced new hurdles in this 'incredible one year'

Jeremy Nixon, CEO of shipping line ONE (Ocean Network Express), said that 2020, with a global operational blockade and a change in demand thereafter, is a "incredible year".

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this,” he said during an International Chamber of Shipping webinar.

“China has collapsed [with the virus] very, very quickly, and then, as soon as they recover, the importing countries experience a similar kind of decommissioning.

“So we had this incredible wave of change, which meant we had to shut down capacity, move ships around, move containers to the right places and try and understand what was going on and what customers needed, when and where."

Mr. Nixon said that ONE ships about 13 million containers per year, on 250 ships and has 10,000 employees at sea and 10,000 on shore, so it is an "incredible task" when in April the company is forced to work remotely. But now, digital systems and tools are much better, which is "a big tick" for the container shipping industry this year, he added.

The task now, he said, is to respond to customer needs back.

"We are in October now, and it's unbelievable," said Nixon. “We’re sold out – the ships are 100% full, the containers are 100% full, you can’t get a container and you can’t pick up a ship from the spot market. The whole container shipping cycle is working at absolute full pelt, and our job is trying to keep the network going."

And new operational barriers are emerging at many congestion hotspots, he added.

“With everything deployed, the ports are getting stuck. Some have fewer workers due to Covid's regulations, we have fewer trucks on the roads and the railways are affected, so we are starting to see bottlenecks in that container supply chain”.

Furthermore, the crew change crisis remains unsolved and Mr. Nixon has issued a call for governments to do more for the 300,000 crew members needing repatriation, many of whom have served much longer than on term. their contract.

"We have to bring these people back," he said. “The ICS and IMO have done a fantastic job in highlighting the issue and coming up with protocols and procedures, but there’s a lot of stickiness at the local level, in terms of ports and trying to get flights sorted".

“Governments, please work with us; please help us, help us get our crews home and help us keep the global economy going."

Phaata (Source: Sam Whelan - TheLoadstar)