- JP
- EN
Message from President and CEO on MOL Foundation Day
April 01, 2025
We are pleased to bring you a message from Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) President & CEO Takeshi Hashimoto on MOL Foundation Day.
"BLUE ACTION 2035" Phase 1 Completion and Transition on to Phase 2
As we enter fiscal year 2025, which marks the 141st anniversary of MOL's founding, I would like to look back on a successful FY2024 and look ahead as we set the stage for long-term success and the achievement of our Group Vision.
Fiscal year 2025 is the final year of the MOL Group Management Plan "BLUE ACTION 2035" Phase 1. It will be a critical year for completing Phase 1 and designing the details of Phase 2, which will begin in April 2026. Our business environment is becoming more complex every day with the tense U.S.-China relations, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and the situation in the Red Sea. Nevertheless, we will continue to fulfill our corporate mission without wavering, and contribute to the development of the global economy as a social infrastructure company with its origins in the ocean. We will also press on with our efforts to enhance corporate value by addressing social issues, including environmental challenges.
"BLUE ACTION 2035" Review of FY2024
Two full years have passed since the launch of "BLUE ACTION 2035" in April 2023. Over the past two years, our market-driven businesses, including the container, car carrier, and chemical tanker businesses, have benefited from favorable market conditions, and with the tailwind of the Japanese yen's depreciation, our performance overall exceeded our initial plan. We have achieved the financial KPIs set in "BLUE ACTION 2035" ahead of schedule, balancing shareholder returns with strengthening our equity capital, and have accelerated investments towards realizing our desired business portfolio faster pace than initially planned. Looking at our stable-cash flow businesses, we have actively pursued new investments in the energy field over the past year, including LNG carriers for Qatar Energy, FSRUs for Singapore LNG Corporation, liquefied ethane carriers for Thailand's Siam Cement Group, and wind power business. We also made new investments in office buildings in Japan and overseas and in the "logistics infrastructure" projects in Southeast Asia. In the cruise business, the "MITSUI OCEAN FUJI" entered the service last December, and this year, we have acquired a new sister ship to further enhance the value of our cruise brand, "MITSUI OCEAN CRUISES." Additionally, last month, we decided to acquire LBC Tank Terminals, a major tank terminal company primarily handling chemicals, which will be the largest M&A deal in our company’s history. This acquisition aims to further strengthen our chemical logistics business, which is one of our strengths, and expand the stable cash flow businesses that differ from the cyclical shipping market. With infrastructure in hand that will enable us to expand into onshore storage of clean energy such as ammonia in the future, we expect to make an even greater contribution to the world's energy transition.
Turning to our environmental strategy, the new LNG-fueled ferry "Sunflower Kamuy" started service on the Oarai-Tomakomai route in January. In addition, as we recently announced publicly, we have decided to jointly own and charter up to nine vessels, including the world's first ammonia dual-fuel Capesize bulk carriers and chemical tankers. Although the momentum toward a decarbonized society seems to have slightly waned compared to before, the transition to a decarbonized society is essential in the long term to address the climate change issues. Our commitment to take on new challenges in line with our environmental vision remains as strong as ever.
I would like to once again thank all the executives and employees of all group companies for their efforts in achieving steady progress in "BLUE ACTION 2035" initiatives over the past two years.
"BLUE ACTION 2035" Initiatives for FY2025
As I mentioned at the beginning of my message, FY2025 is the final year of Phase 1, and will be a critical year for us. Over the past two years, the shipping market has been stronger than initially expected, partly due to special geopolitical factors. However, we anticipate a softening of the market in the future due to changes in global situations and an increase in new building, so we can expect a somewhat challenging business environment in FY2025. We will continue the business portfolio transformation we have been pursuing, while ensuring that in FY2025 we make the necessary strategic adjustments to adapt to shifts in the business environment.
For the new fiscal year, we have reviewed the organizational structure that serves as the foundation of our company. To indicate more clearly that the executive officer responsible for the business division is the executive officer responsible for each business globally, not just within the scope of the Tokyo head office's jurisdiction, we changed the title from Executive Officer responsible for "Division" to Executive Officer responsible for "Business." Through this change, along with FY2023's introduction of executive officers responsible for "Regions" and Chief Officers responsible for each corporate "Function," we aim to create an organizational structure that enhances mutual support based on the three axes of business, region, and function. As stated in my New Year's address, we are now entering the stage where we can leverage our expanded business scale. It will become even more important to identify winning strategies for each business and prioritize the allocation of management resources such as human capital and funds in areas with high growth potential and profitability. To strengthen competitiveness, we must build a sound business portfolio by selling or replacing assets, and we will have to take strategic measures such as carve-outs of some businesses and business alliances of particular parts with other companies. We will capture changes in global situations and business environments, identify priority business areas from a broad perspective, and strengthen our ability to drive the transformation of our business portfolio while maintaining financial discipline. In addition, we will establish Singapore Sub-Headquarters. Until now, each business organization has developed its local organization based on individual optimization, but to pursue efficiency through overall optimization, including the elimination of duplicated functions, we will group the six major subsidiaries located in Singapore together as the "Singapore Sub-Headquarters" to strengthen collaboration while maintaining the management independence of each company. We will further strengthen the business foundation of our group in Singapore, which is an international shipping hub and a driving force behind the economic growth of Southeast Asia. This also anticipates Singapore playing an important role in our group's business continuity plan in the event of a disaster in Japan.
In the past, business strategies and the human resource strategies that support them have not always been linked, but the resolution of each strategy has been improved, and we will pursue measures to link them more closely together. Human resource is one of our most important management resources, and effective business operations cannot be achieved without appropriate quality of working people. We have made proactive investments, but we believe human resource could be one of the constraints on our business plan in the future. We will visualize the human capital portfolio of our entire group and formulate an appropriate personnel plan that eliminates waste throughout the group, and then we will move to reallocate human resources.
In terms of safety, we plan to reorganize our safety operation organization to achieve functional reinforcement based on the "MOL Group Safety Vision" established in January 2024. The MOL Group aims to become a global social infrastructure company by proactively investing in non-shipping businesses, and safety and quality management will be increasingly important beyond the maritime transport businesses. We will also emphasize the enhancement of safety and its management throughout our group.
I stated that this fiscal year will be a critical year in the formulation of Phase 2. While we are not changing "our vision" of the MOL Group in 2035, this initiative will establish a more detailed roadmap for achieving that vision. Considering significant changes in the business environment over the past three years since we first considered Phase 1, we will prudently review the results of our efforts in Phase 1 and the remaining issues, including the possibility of re-setting Core KPIs. I believe the key will be finding ways to improve existing businesses while balancing the financial discipline to realize early returns from the investments made in Phase 1 and maintain an excellent balance sheet. This initiative is about considering how to achieve stable growth of our group and realize our group vision, and we look forward to the cooperation of group employees, in both domestically and internationally, as we bring it all together.
In Conclusion
The 2025 World Exposition ("Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai, Japan") will open soon. The MOL exhibit will feature a large model of the Wind Hunter, our next-generation zero-emission ship that produces and transports hydrogen by capturing wind, in the "Transportation and Mobility" zone of the "The Future City" pavilion. On March 10, we successfully held a commemorative ceremony to celebrate the completion of the pavilion. Additionally, in July, "MOL Museum Funeshiru" will open in the same area of Osaka as a hands-on, interactive corporate museum. "MOL Museum Funeshiru" grew out of an idea generated through the MOL Incubation Bridge program. Its concept proposal reflected the group's aspiration to demonstrate to the general public how the shipping industry supports everyday life, while showcasing the MOL Group's ongoing technological innovations, all in a fun and enjoyable experience. I hope this initiatives, centered in Osaka, where our company has its roots, will promote greater recognition of our company's history among our group officers and employees, and enhance their pride and attachment.
In closing, I would like to emphasize that the foundation of any business is to ensure safety and quality and to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. I hope all group employees will keep this in mind at all times. Let's all work together to make this crucial year a fruitful one for our entire group.