Beating the queues with bulk cargo

EASTERN CAR LINER AMERICAS I PROFILE

theQUEUES with bulk

CARGO

Eastern Car Liner Americas (ECL Americas) is a subsidiary of Eastern Car Liner Ltd, a Japanese vessel operating ocean carrier based in Tokyo. The company’s fleet of Ro-Ro ships is the backbone of its service offering, but its fleet of multipurpose breakbulk ships has stolen the spotlight amidst the container shipping crisis. Bill Christ, Executive Vice President and COO of ECL Americas spoke to Richard Hagan about how the company is benefiting from the capacity difficulties afflicting container shipping across the Pacific.

Bill Christ,Executive Vice President and COO

Eastern Car Liner Americas (ECL Americas) was born out of the fire and devastation of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake in Japan.

With the ports and their container handling facilities knocked out of service, a major Japanese tyre manufacturer was in search of a new shipping solution for its jumbo-sized off-road tyres.

These had previously been transported in open top containers to their destinations in North America. It was then that Eastern Car Liner Ltd stepped in and offered to transport the tyres via its breakbulk ships.

“That turned out to be a much better way to ship these very large tyres,” said ECL Americas Executive Vice President and COO, Bill Christ. “Consequently, Eastern Car Liner Ltd established ECL Americas and since 1995, the base cargo of every ship of ours between Japan and North America has been those jumbo-sized off-road tyres.”

Shipping to North America

ECL Americas’ parent company, Eastern Car Liner Ltd, opened its doors in 1977. It operated – and continues to operate – a fleet of Ro-Ro and conventional breakbulk ships from Japan, to destinations throughout the Far East and Southeast Asia, including Bay of Bengal, Persian Gulf and Australia. While its primary cargo is new and used cars, it also transports trucks and construction equipment such as excavators.

EASTERN CAR LINER AMERICAS I PROFILE

The company was founded by a Japanese family but today, Eastern Car Liner Ltd’s ownership is shared between the family and several shareholding corporations.

ECL Americas also carries a variety of other cargo, particularly project cargo, machinery, construction equipment, and steel products like coiled steel, plate and wire rods. When its ships head back east, ECL Americas transports a great deal of US bulk commodities, primarily copper concentrates and various machinery consignments.

In addition to its shipping business, Mr Christ revealed that ECL America has extended its services into the trucking industry as well.

“ECL America is licensed and bonded as a truck broker. We specialise in cargos that are moving to and from our ships. In 2021 we became licensed and bonded as an NVOCC (non-vessel operating common carrier). This brings us additional opportunities in terms of scheduling, routing and capacity. Having this license gives us the opportunity to partner with other carriers to augment and fill out our own vessel operations.”

Eastern Car Liner Ltd is headquartered in Tokyo and employs 200 staff across its head office and its 18 overseas subsidiaries. ECL Americas is the smallest of the subsidiaries and consists of three staff members, including Mr Christ, an assistant, and a sales executive based in Vancouver.

The company’s combined fleet consists of 15 Ro-Ro ships that operate primarily across Asia. Additionally, it operates 24 breakbulk multipurpose ships, three of which are assigned to the company’s North America trans-Pacific rotation.

The trans-Pacific breakbulk fleet runs a semi-liner service, its regular route having stops at the Port of Long Beach, followed by Vancouver, Canada and then Everett, Washington.

“We’re very much a niche carrier,” Mr Christ commented. “We don’t normally target container cargo, but the current situation within container shipping has created a lot of opportunities for us in addition to our usual non-containerised breakbulk commodities.”

Opportunity amidst an unprecedented crisis

As of June 2022, the container shipping industry continues to suffer from ongoing bottlenecks at major ports around the world. The problem is especially pronounced on the US west coast, with the bustling ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles forming the epicentre.

EASTERN CAR LINER AMERICAS I PROFILE

“The terminals there are just full,” he lamented. “They don’t have space to unload containers; there’s literally nowhere to put them. Every piece of available land has containers on it now. Ships sit at anchor or drifting, waiting to offload. People are waiting for one to two months for their cargo.

“People who traditionally rely on container ships have been put in a very difficult space,” he continued. “They’re not getting space on ships, access to equipment, or reliable schedules. Ships are waiting for extended periods.”

According to Mr Christ, the problem is unprecedented in his career, but it’s also led to tremendous opportunities for ECL Americas. “I’ve been working in freight forwarding and ocean shipping for 35 years and there are activities going on right now that I’d never have imagined. The container crisis has really changed things quite a bit and a lot of cargo is now coming to us.”

ECL Americas’ big ace up its sleeve, amidst the crisis, is the fact that its vessels skip the queues at the container terminal, and visit the much less congested breakbulk terminals. “Our ships don’t wait,” Mr Christ explained. “If anything, we might wait a day. Customers see that and ask if we’re able to get their cargo into our ships. It’s brought a lot of new opportunities for us.”

He went on to explain those requests in more detail. “A lot of cargo, mainly consumer goods, needs to ship in containers. Our ships are geared for oversize breakbulk, but people are nonetheless coming to us seeking alternatives because they simply can’t get their cargo onto the container ships.

“We don’t have our own containers as we’re not a container carrier, but people are bringing their containers to us and putting them on our ships. Some customers have been so desperate that we’ve been trying really hard to come up with some alternatives and different ideas for them. Cargo that should ship on containers is now moving to sources outside of the container pool. Even some

of the big Ro-Ro ships that can handle static cargo as well are full. We’re sailing full, both east and west bound!”

He described the company’s tyre manufacturer client has been equally affected. “They still ship their smaller tyres – truck and car tyres – in containers, but they’ve not been able to get their supply chain moving on the container ships. So, they’ve come to us to book those smaller tyres with us. We’ve taken as many as we can, as best we can.”

The company is now so busy that its primary challenge is capacity. “The North America group team at our Tokyo office doesn’t have enough capacity for the requests we’re getting. We’d really like to add more voyages in the trans-Pacific route but that would mean taking a ship from our intra-Asia network, and they need them there just as much as we do here. Meanwhile, in North America itself, our trucking business has been exceptionally busy. We’re very satisfied with it.”

The importance of long-term relationships

As a subsidiary of a Japanese company, ECL Americas’ company culture is heavily influenced by its parent company’s own culture and business philosophy.

“Our decisions are based on long-term relationships and our priorities are with customers who have been with us the longest,” Mr Christ revealed. “Japanese business philosophy is all about sticking with customers and vendors for a long time. We’re small and attentive to their needs.”

He added: “When you’re not dealing with cargo that fits in a box, you have to react to what they need, and we try to do that. Generally speaking, we’re doing everything we can to satisfy them and others as best as we can.”

Mr Christ’s link with Japan and his respect for its culture goes far deeper than his career though. In concluding, he provided some insight into how his Japanese links extend into his family and personal life as well: “I have a very long and deep connection with Japan, having spent my entire career working with and for Japanese customers. I’ve lived there twice and my wife is a Japanese national. My entire adult life has been connected to Japan, so the culture and philosophy are close to my heart and a core part of who I am.” n