TERRY HUTSON MITSUI OSK president Akimitsu Ashida says the shipping industry and MOL in particular can no longer be regarded as a risky business subject to market fluctuations. “We have steadily improved our business performance by allocating half of our management resources into fields where we expect stable long-term profits and the other half into areas where we can maximise our profits by taking advantage of key market opportunities,” Ashida said in a New Year message. He added that MOL had gone to considerable effort to be more transparent and disclose more financial information, especially information that demonstrated the group’s financial stability. “Recent evaluations indicate that this work is paying off and that the financial community is rewarding us with improved share prices and credit ratings.” He said people generally assumed that ocean shipping was a mature industry. “On the contrary, we believe that continuing globalisation and expanding worldwide trade will create tremendous opportunities for long-term growth.”
