Abe administration, LDP seems to have given up preventing the spread of the new coronavirus. As seen in the “Go To Travel” campaign, they have put up a policy recommending people (excluding Tokyo residents) to go sightseeing all over the country before the spread of the new coronavirus has stopped, and that tax payers’ money of 1.7 trillion yen will be thrown in. For people who are living a hard financial life, there is no such room for a trip now. It cannot be denied that it is a policy for the rich. The policy may be aiming for economic effects, but it’s doubtful how effective it is. Masks which once were hard to find in the market are recently easy to get with reasonable price, and nowadays they have purchased from overseas masks for 20 billion yen from tax, to distribute them as so called washable & reusable “Abe-no-Mask” to 5.8 million households, 2 masks per household. On the other hand, they planned to distribute the remaining 8,000 masks to nursing homes that were struggling to prevent infection, but were told that they had no such time for washing, and would stock them up till needed. That’s a waste of tax. When medical personnel need disposable masks to avoid viral infections, the idea of washable Abe-no-mask is very childish. It’s far better to spend the mask cost directly to medical personnel.
The Service Design Engineering Council has undertaken a Subsidy Program for Sustaining Businesses of 76.9 billion yen from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The contract method is also unclear. That council entrusted it to Dentsu for 74.9 billion yen, and Dentsu subcontracted it to their own subsidiary for 64.5 billion yen. The tax of 12.4 billion yen has disappeared by this hundred-percent subcontracting. Dentsu is said to have been making a large amount of donations to the LDP. If so, isn’t that too explicit? What does the government think of the taxes we are paying?
Will policy change by contributions to politicians and political parties? Who is the “Go to Travel” Campaign for? How was “Abe-no-mask”? The Abe administration is said to be the “friendship administration”. A person who is convenient to him is appointed to a minister. Shouldn’t we put more importance to that person’s quality? Even if the person had a scandal, he does not take responsibility for appointment. The case of former Justice Minister Kawai is a good example. He used money openly to raise votes in a parliamentary election in which his wife ran. Also, former Superintending Prosecutor of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office Kurokawa was betting Mahjong during the state of emergency. He took his responsibility and resigned, but by reprimand rather than disciplinary punishment. He got a full retirement allowance of about 60 million yen.
Did Prime Minister Abe try to take advantage of the political scandals, such as the Moritomo Gakuen issue and Kake Gakuen issue, by extending Mr. Kurokawa’s retirement age and assigning him as the Attorney General? Is this the result of Abe brain & his followers pursuing their own gain? If this goes on, situation will worsen.
In any case, the long-term administration has problems. In the United States, the term of service of the president is four years, with maximum two terms eight years. At that time, a total of 3,000 government officials who are serving the government are replaced. In the United States, there is an idea that any political institution can be autocratic, that is why the term of service of the president is four years, with maximum two terms eight years. Japan reached 75 years after the war. It should be possible to build a system that can be done by a small number of people using IT, such as reviewing the current Constitution that suits the times, reforming the parliamentary cabinet system, reducing the number of parliamentarians, and rebuilding the bureaucracy. A man who became a politician young with aspirations might forget his original aspirations after many years in political world and put priority on re-election and savings. We wonder how many parliamentarians are engaged in politics with permanent national policy. Politicians should show their people the way the country should be in the future. The majority decision making requires consideration to the minority. People should know that democratic freedom comes with responsibility. And we citizens need to think again about how to develop excellent politicians. A person with ordinary qualities, abilities and nerves cannot be a politician. Not to mention the prime minister of a country. Therefore, we can say politician is a mirror of the people. The new coronavirus now reminds us of this.
Ocean Network Express (ONE) total shipment for the first quarter (April-June) was 2,673,000TEU, with Sales $2.775 billion and after-tax profit $167 million. While cargo movements were declining, they improved ocean freight with the aid of falling fuel prices and by reducing vessel fleet in service to cut operation costs. They achieved record high quarterly profit. ONE CEO Jeremy Nixon emphasizes that adjusting the supply capacity of each alliance according to cargo volume is important for profitability. On the other hand, even if international trade temporarily shrinks due to the effect of the new coronavirus, it is highly likely that it will be activated again in the post-corona. He said in an interview with the Japan Maritime Daily that it is difficult to go backwards when the supply chain is being built on a global scale. We do agree with him. We believe that the current flow of supply chain system will not change for more than 5 years.
Ever since the new coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan, China in last December, the number of infected people is about to reach 20 million, with no sign of slowing down. A city blockade was carried out, borders were closed, and traffic was blocked to prevent infections. However, humans have no choice but to continue economic activities.
Globalization unites the world, and the logistics do not stop under any circumstances.
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2020 1H Number of container handling in world major 10 ports |
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| Rank | Port | Number of containers | Comparison with same period last year |
Rank in 2019 |
| 1 | Shanghai | 20,060,000 | -6.9 | 1 |
| 2 | Singapore | 17,840,000 | -1.1 | 2 |
| 3 | Ningbo/Zhoushan | 13,250,000 | -4.7 | 3 |
| 4 | Shenzhen | 11,070,000 | -10.8 | 4 |
| 5 | Guangzhou | 10,760,000 | -1.6 | 5 |
| 6 | Pusan | 10,750,000 | -2.2 | 6 |
| 7 | Qingdao | 10,340,000 | 0.3 | 7 |
| 8 | Hong Kong | 8,650,000 | -4.9 | 8 |
| 9 | Tianjin | 8,580,000 | 2.9 | 9 |
| 10 | Rotterdam | 7,002,000 | -7.0 | 10 |
According to the North American Retailers Association (NRF) forecast of cargo movements up to 6 months ahead as of July 6, although import cargo volume is recovering moderately, retailers are wary of the re-spreading of new coronavirus infections, and they remain cautious about increasing their inventory.
Forecast for August-November 2020 is as follows;
August 1.69 million TEU (3.3% down)
September 1.64 million TEU (12.3% down)
October 1.70 million TEU (9.9% down)
November 1.68 million TEU (0.6% down)
We can except that a considerable amount of material moves from Asia to North America even in the current corona situation.
The container operation rate of container leasing companies seems to have fallen to 90-92%. Triton owns 6 million TEU. Textainer has a total fleet of 3 million TEU. When we simply apply 90% operation rate, the number of containers idling in the world is 0.6 million TEU for Triton and 0.3 million TEU for Textainer. In China, the demand for 40fHC Dry containers temporarily increased from mid to late July, and the number of new build containers at the container factory decreased, and the depot stock in China also bottomed out.
It shows that the shipping companies are struggling to empty position to China their own 40fHC Dry containers which are idling around the world. Under this influence, the selling price of 40fHC Dry in Japanese used container market is also soaring up.
As of the end of July, Chinese container factories have a new build container inventory of 830,691TEU (Dry: 830,385TEU, Reefer: 48,306TEU). Dry container stock decreased by 17% compared to last month, and 14% down for reefers. New container price is $2,050 per 20f.
(Translated by Ms. Chizuru Oowada)