Jeremy Nixon

One on ONE with Jeremy Nixon

The head of Japan’s top containerline joined us on an appropriately thundery afternoon

It was a suitably stormy afternoon in Singapore when Maritime CEO connected with Jeremy Nixon in early May. The highly approachable and genial CEO of Ocean Network Express (ONE) was happy to take on a whole raft of topics in a quick-fire, nine-minute episode discussing the plight of liner shipping during what would turn out to be among the darkest months for container shipping in the sector’s 64-year history .

Nixon discussed how volumes have dropped thanks to the coronavirus and assessed just how bad things could get for liner shipping.

Nixon also compared the fallout from today’s pandemic to what happened in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. He recalled the V-shaped recovery back then and the fast inventory recovery five months after Lehman Brothers collapsed.

“This situation today will take a longer term recovery,” Nixon said, uncertain whether even after 18

Cultural lockdown

Book: Riddle in the Sands by Erskine Childers

TV: Twin on BBC

“The transfer across to home working has been relatively painless ” months if box volumes will have ago, Nixon said: “I think there is still recovered. a place for big ships in terms of just

The ONE boss also discussed the overall economics of running digitalisation saying how the panthe business. At the end of the day demic would inevitably make his a customer wants a very good price company review again the way its for their container shipping services. staff works. As long as we can continue to work

“The transfer across to home in consortia then we can continue to working has been relatively painless,” operate big ships but obviously less Nixon said. loops than we did before.”

Quizzed on whether or not the Noticeably all market chatter economic case for the latest slew of ONE ploughing ahead with more of record breaking megamax ships giant ship orders have disappeared was as sound as just a few months as Covid-19 has spread. ●