Ocean Network Express (ONE)

The Ocean Network Express (ONE) is a shipping company that is jointly owned by three Japanese shipping companies; Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), and K Line, established on July 7,2017. The shipping alliance was forged during a period of intense mergers and acquisitions throughout the ocean freight industry which was, at the time, suffering from overcapacity and weak demand. NYK controls a 38% stake of the joint venture, while MOL and K Line own 31% each.

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Ocean Network Express is the sixth largest ocean freight fleet in the world with 1,590,000 TEUs worth of capacity. The operations are shared between the three holding companies through a total of 224 vessels, including 31 super-large ships, as well as the world’s largest 20,000TEU container-ship, the MOL Triumph.

Ocean Network Express as a Part of THE Alliance

For much the same reason as the founding of ONE, Transport High Efficiency (THE) Alliance was created to facilitate two elements that ocean carriers compete on: low prices and broad service coverage, during a time of uncertainty in the ocean freight industry.

THE Alliance was originally launched in 2017 and consists of ONE, Hapag-Lloyd, and Yang Ming. The shipping alliance also included Hanjin Shipping, before its collapse in August of 2016.

As of January 2020, THE Alliance also welcomed Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) into their ranks. The total combined capacity allows THE Alliance to handle upwards of a third of the global ocean freight capacity.

Ocean Network Express Tracking

As a conglomeration of several separate shipping companies and part of one of the world’s largest shipping alliances, Ocean Network Express has a considerable amount of moving pieces to keep track of. Shippers can follow Ocean Network Express vessels and receive real-time information about their containers during transit. Learn more about project44’s container track and trace program and how you can effortlessly incorporate high visibility into your supply chain.

ONE Vessel Schedule

Our port-to-port schedule service provides comprehensive insights and transparency on the sailing schedules of all major shipping lines at the click of a mouse. Stop searching, start finding, and improve your operational workflow and efficiency. Our vessel schedule tool gives you all the information for a specific vessel at a glance. That way, you can compare the ETAs and ETDs of different carriers for the same ship, or gather more insight information and transparency about vessel share agreements. Nothing could be easier and more advantageous.

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ONE: Japan’s K-Line, MOL, NYK merge container shipping business

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February 2, 2018

Japanese lines Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line), Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) will jointly operate as the Ocean Network Express (ONE), and will begin its services on April 1, 2018.

At the time of the October announcement, the companies said that their decision to merge came on the heels of low oil prices, sluggish cargo demand, oversupply of trade capacity and container freight rates at historic lows, according to a report in Seatrade Maritime News.

The companies will merge into Ocean Network Express (ONE) and will rank sixth in terms of global ranking by vessel capacity after the merger — a combined 1.48 million TEU on 234 ships; well above Evergreen’s 1.1 million TEU and just behind Hapag-Lloyd’s 1.56 million TEU.

With a combined order book of around 187,000 TEU in 2018, ONE has the potential to eclipse Hapag-Lloyd, which has no ships on order. NYK, the largest of the trio, will hold a 38% stake in the merged Ocean Network Express (ONE), while K Line and MOL will each have a 31% share.

A primary function for ONE will be to reduce costs by cutting out duplicated sailings.

The bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping in August 2016 is the biggest ever in the container shipping sector, underscoring the depressed state of the industry severely weakened by excessive capacity and poor earnings. Global carriers have responded to the crisis by way of mergers and consolidation. France’s CMA CGM completed its acquisition of Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), which owns APL.

The merger of Hapag-Lloyd and UASC is expected to bring about improvements in their profitability and achieve lower transport costs per container.

China’s state-owned giant shipping conglomerates, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company and China Shipping (Group) Company, had merged to form China Cosco Shipping Corporation (Cosco Shipping), in an attempt to streamline the businesses and better utilise resources.

Ben Hackett, founder of maritime shipping consultancy Hackett Associates, said that the benefits of Ocean Network Express vary, depending on the perspective of the stakeholder. ​“From a shipper, or beneficial cargo owner perspective, this will take more competition away,” he said, ​“but on the carrier side, they said it creates more [strategic] rationale, gets rids of potential excess capacity, and creates a more unified company. It does not impact pricing, except that there will be a unified pricing structure for one company instead of three.”

In a recent statement, the member carriers Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express and Yang Ming said: ​“After one year of cooperation we are proud to say that our services and the network improved significantly. The business is well on track in operational terms and with the delivery of several new big ships we are able to serve our customers even better.”

The comprehensive network of 33 services is connecting more than 81 major ports throughout Asia, North Europe, the Mediterranean, North America, Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Indian Sub-Continent and the Middle East with fast transit times and a wide range of direct port-to-port-connections.

Source: Port Technology, Logistics Management, The Loadstar, Supply Chain Dive, Seatrade Maritime, Shipping Watch, ONE