Takashi Masuda, President, Ocean Network Express (ONE)

one-line.com
Author picture

Takashi Masuda, President, ONE

The last two and a half years of working through the pandemic and supply chain challenges have taught us a lot. I believe one of the positives is that the future outlook for the container shipping industry remains strong and the demand for container shipping services will continue to grow. 

However, in order to meet the challenges of catering to the continued growth, we need to get smarter and more efficient as an industry. When there are limited physical assets or space, the only way to achieve this is through collaboration amongst the stakeholders. This is not something completely innovative, but just getting back to basics and doing things right. 

As we faced supply chain issues, one observation I made was that we need to look at many of our past practices and revisit them. Some traditional industry practices that influence how we service our customers do not take into account all of the changes we are facing in today's environment — this is applicable throughout the entire supply chain.  

Therefore, I think it would help if we revisited these practices and tried to improve upon them. The first step would be to identify any misunderstandings amongst parties regarding the execution of moving containers. I am hopeful that the industry can continue to work together to build a stronger North American infrastructure to support future growth demand for the transportation of containers.