Containerships carry an incredible range of cargo, such as finished products, parts, foods, and general consumer products. Importance of this segment has been increasing, spurred by the advancement of the global division of labour and the rising world population. Our world-wide transport network covers east-west routes, south-north routes, and intra-Asia routes, contributing to the world economy. To further enhance service quality and efficiency on east-west routes, we formed The New World Alliance(TNWA) with Hyundai Merchant Marine and APL.

<Business Performance during FY2008>
In the containership segment, we laid up surplus vessels to reduce space and offset the fall in cargo trade, including that on the major Asia-North America (eastbound) and Asia-Europe (westbound) routes. We also took action to minimize losses on routes where competition is intense and profitability difficult or impossible to achieve, including discontinuing some services such as the Asia-Black Sea service. With regard to costs, we strived to reduce fuel expenses by such methods as deceleration navigation in the face of high bunker prices, particularly during the first half of the fiscal year....more