JANUARY 1 saw the official launch of Mitsui OSK Lines SA (MOLSAF), taking over from Ellerman & Bucknall the sales, documentation, vessel husbanding, equipment control and inland arrangements for MOL in southern Africa.
The newly established company is the 23rd subsidiary of MOL's owned agency network in the world, and the first Japanese company to establish its own shipping agency in Africa.
There are no longer any constraints in terms of where we can trade. We now have
the flexibility to choose our
own direction, m.d. Dave Giraudeau told FTW.
All E&B staff have come across to MOLSAF, offering clients and service providers the benefit of continuity.
We will in future control and appoint all our own subcontractors and will have direct control over all landside activity.
Next month we will introduce our Mitsui-developed computer system which is globally linked.
The project leader has already installed 11 systems around the world, so we're confident that South African clients will have access to a tried, tested and enhanced new system.
Phase 2 of the installation, scheduled for April, will involve EDI (electronic data interchange) links with service providers. Client links via EDI are in the medium-term planning.
The company is currently running two vessels in parallel to test the system and is quietly confident that its deadlines will be achieved on schedule.
In the meantime, the switch-over has been accomplished with minor disruptions around the country. In PE, East London and Durban, MOLSAF has moved to new offices, while in Johannesburg and Cape Town head office, they have remained in the same building but moved to separate offices.
In South Africa, MOL operates three services: between SA and the Far East as a member of the SAFARI consortium; between SA and West Africa; and a Super Express option serving West Africa, Port Louis, Colombo, Shanghai and Busan.
A fact often not widely appreciated is that MOL is, in terms of gross tonnage and revenue, the largest shipping line in the world.
It was founded in 1964 with the merger of Osaka Shosen Kaisha (OSK Line) and the Mitsui Steamship Co. Following MOL's intended merger with Navix in April this year it will boast a fleet of more than 396 vessels and a deadweight tonnage capacity of 33,5 million tonnes.
The incorporation of MOLSAF will complete the company's own agency network in the southern hemisphere with existing agencies in South America and Australia, Giraudeau said.
MOLSAF will launch globally-linked computer system next month
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