NYK Line Review
Nippon Yusen Kaisha is one of the world’s largest shipping companies. The Tokyo-based shipper operates one of the largest merchant fleets in the world, and delivers an extensive range of land, sea and air transportation services to hundreds of destinations around the world. NYK Line was established in 1885 as a maritime transportation company and has evolved over the decades into a $25 billion conglomerate that prides itself on offering one of the most comprehensive ranges of transportation services in the industry.
Global Reach, Global Operations
NYK operates about 800 ships and a vast fleet of trucks, trains and planes. The company’s maritime fleet includes about 160 container vessels, about 300 bulk cargo carriers, and close to 110 tankers and liquefied natural gas carriers. NYK also operates over four-dozen woodchip vessels, three cruise ships and 115 car carrying vessels. The group maintains a total of 240 offices spread across 26 countries. It has warehouses and harbor operations in North America, Asia and Europe. Last year, NYK Group employed a total of 55,000 people around the globe.
Logistics Operations
The Global Logistics division of NYK Line is responsible for the company’s core sea and air transportation business, and also its harbor operations and logistics services. The company transports a wide range of cargo, including bulk and break-bulk shipments, iron ore, steel, aluminum, project cargo and automobiles to destinations in every continent. In recent years, Nippon Yusen Kaisha has greatly expanded its liner service-route network as the result of an alliance it established a few years ago with Hapag-Lloyd Container Line and Orient Overseas Container Line.
Terminal and Harbor Transport Business
Nippon Yusen’s terminal and harbor transport business provides a range of stevedoring and terminal services at facilities spread across Japan, Europe, Asia and North America. The company maintains over 12 major container terminal facilities in ports along the US east and west coasts. As part of its harbor services, NYK Line offers customers help with packing, crating, palletizing, loading, storing and forwarding cargo. It also operates two terminals in the US for handling car shipping on Roll on Roll off (RoRo) ships.
Air Transportation Business
In recent years, the shipping company has focused quite a bit on expanding its air transportation business. It recently upgraded its entire fleet of aircraft to Boeing 747-400F freighters. Over the next few years, Nippon Yusen Kaisha plans to further build out its air transportation capabilities by adding several new, next generation Boeing 747-8F cargo aircraft to its fleet.