MOL MOVES EUROPEAN LINER HEADQUARTERS TO ROTTERDAM
Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has announced that it will relocate its European liner headquarters from London to Rotterdam in August.
The transfer will affect about 50 jobs. Existing headquarters senior management in London will relocate to Rotterdam and many staff are being offered the opportunity of relocation, the company said.
MOL said that its European liner headquarters should be nearer to markets in mainland Europe.
“Particularly with the inauguration of the Eurozone, our belief is that the proportion of traffic through the Benelux
(Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg) ports will increase, as will the demand for intermodal traffic,” the Japanese group said. “In addition, MOL foresees that the expansion of Europe will increasingly be Eastward with the proposed incorporation of the former East Bloc countries into the EC,” it added.
MOL said that the costs of running the European headquarters organization in London are “significantly higher” than those in continental Europe. “This reorganization will help MOL in further strengthening its cost competitiveness,” the Japanese group said.
MOL opened its London office in 1917, and has since managed its European liner business from this office.
Contrary to the group’s liner shipping business, the European activities of Mitsui O.S.K. Bulk will continue to be run from London.
