MOL President & CEO Hashimoto Addresses Company's Entrance Ceremony
- Positioning Human Capital as a Source of Growth -

April 04, 2025

TOKYO-Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Takeshi Hashimoto) announced that on April 1, it welcomed 117 new employees (new graduates at marine: 15; new graduates on shore: 52; career recruits on shore: 50). President & CEO Hashimoto delivered the following message at the entrance ceremony.

"Everyone, congratulations on joining us on this new voyage.

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you MOL's history, our current status, and our future direction.

New Mitsui O.S.K. Lines was established through the merger of MOL and Navix Line. The early 2000s brought significant growth, as seaborne trade increased due to economic growth in East and Southeast Asia, especially China. At the same time, we accelerated our transition from a Japan-centered company primarily serving Japanese customers to a truly international company with a global customer base.

In 2008, the collapse of Lehman Brothers exposed financial distortions resulting from the rapid expansion of the global economy. The resulting bubble burst triggered a severe global recession. This affected MOL as well, and while newbuilding vessels were delivered one after another from 2010 onward, demand for ocean transport declined, leading to a very long winter. During this difficult time, we continued our efforts to correct the oversupply and reduce the number of vessels in our fleet to match our position, but revenues and profits did not increase, and a period of stagnation ensued.

Around 2019, with structural reforms completed, the vessel supply-demand balance began to recover, but in early 2020, COVID-19 emerged. Although this pandemic caused severe damage around the world, it also had a positive impact on shipping industry profits. The efficiency of logistics declined and demand for vessels tightened, resulting in unprecedented profits in 2021 and 2022. While this dramatically improved our financial position, it has also raised the issues of future investment and growth.

Based on MOL's history up to the present day, we intend to focus on businesses other than shipping, with the aim of achieving growth by transforming ourselves into a social infrastructure company. Our hiring has increased significantly with the launch of new businesses and the expansion of our operations. My request to each and every one of you is to use your individual strengths to help us, contributing to the future growth of our company. I hope that each of you will develop your own potential to the fullest and lead our business to success together, building a mutually beneficial relationship between you and the company."