News
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), 75 business operators were newly registered, permitted and approved as non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOCCs) in 2016 (January-December), nearly doubling the 40 registered, permitted and approved in 2015. The total number of business operators entering the NVOCC market last year was exceptionally high in recent years. It clearly indicated that customers still continued to go global, and that to live up to their demand, an increasing number of logistics service providers worked to develop business bases for providing international multimodal services.
The 75 were made up of 56 Japanese and 19 foreign NVOCCs. First-class consigned freight forwarding business operators accounted for 46 (36 Japanese and 10 foreign forwarders), while the remaining 29 (20 Japanese and nine foreign forwarders) were second-class consigned freight forwarding business operators.
The MLIT said that it is still—continuing from the previous year—processing new applications all the time and receiving inquiries almost every day, meaning there is no sign of diminishing at all among forwarders launching and/or enhancing NVOCC services. As customers (shippers) are relocating production systems to overseas and/or accelerating such moves, it is analyzed that freight forwarders are trying to develop service systems to meet growth in demand for exporting and importing shipments between Japan and other economies.
