MOL announced the joint development of the MOL COILPORTER^®—an innovative new way to secure steel coils during container transport—along with MOL Techno-Trade, Ltd. (MOL Tech; President: Hirokazu Hatta; Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo).

[Outline of MOL COILPORTER^®]

The MOL COILPORTER^® is the new cradle used to lash steel coils, an essential material for automobile manufacturing and other industries, to ensure safer containerized transport. Mitsui O.S.K. Kinkai, Ltd. (President: Kenichi Nagata; Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo), which offers transport service for steel materials, Utoc Corporation (President: Masahiro Tanabe; Headquarters: Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture), and MOL Logistics (Japan) Co., Ltd. (President: Shuhei Togo; Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) shared customers’ requests with the development team, and to creative approaches to address every detail during the development of the MOL COILPORTER^®.

The MOL COILPORTER^® trademark has been registered in major countries. And it is already patented in Japan(Patent No. 665025), with several other patents pending ^{(Note 1)}.

Differences from the conventional lashing are as follows.

	Conventional lashing	MOL COILPORTER®
Assembly/ Loading	·         About 1 hour by two skilled carpenters (measurement/cutting/carpentry). ·         Manually carry and construct with square timbers weighing from 150～200㎏. ·         Special equipment is required to load into the inner depths of the container.	·         About 3 minutes per cradle even with inexperienced workers. ·         Maximum weight of Eperan® (Note 2) is about 3kg/part. ·         The cargo can be pushed into the container for loading, and no special equipment is required.
Disassembly/ Unloading	·         Requires time-consuming dismantling work such as removal of nails from the lashing material. ·         Special equipment is required to unload the coils from deep inside the container.	·         Easy to dismantle thanks to assembly kit. ·         The cargo can be pulled out for unloading, and no special equipment is required.
Resiliency	·         Square timbers are in direct contact with coils, subjecting the cargo to risk of damage.	·         High resiliency reduces risk of cargo damage.
Environmental impact	·         Timbers are discarded after dismantled at the unloading operation.	·         Reusable and recyclable, ensuring more effective use of resources.

[Future Endeavors]

The MOL Group is striving to expand its NVOCC business under the group’s unified brand MOL Worldwide Logistics (MWL). MOL Logistics engages in sales under MWL in Japan. To meet customer demand, starting in Japan, MOL Logistics will commence service using the MOL COILPORTER^® as a differentiated product in May2020 as part of its door-to-door NVOCC service ^{(Note 3)}.

In addition, the MOL COILPORTER^® has acquired the approval ^{(Note 4)} of Ocean Network Express Pte. Ltd. (ONE; MOL’s investment ratio: 31%) for comprehensive transportation services, based on trial shipments with ONE.

MOL will offer new value in containerized steel coil transport through MOL COILPORTER^® and continually develops logistics products that offer stress-free services to customers.

(Note 1) The claims of JP Patent No. 2017-230685/ 2019-018608/2019-031874/2020-008416/2020-052603

(Note 2) Registered trademark of Kaneka Corporation. Foamed polyethylene developed by Kaneka. The material has excellent cushioning properties and resiliency and is lightweight.

(Note 3) Please refer to the following website for details on MOL COILPORTER^® service:

(https://www.mol-logistics-group.com/solution/)

(Note 4) The approval for comprehensive transportation services is on the assumption of transport standards independently established by ONE.