Boom is welcome. Recession is more welcome,' said Mitsui OSK Lines President Akimitsu Ashida last month, quoting Panasonic Group founder Konosuke Matsushita, in his New Year message to staff throughout the Japanese shipowning group. Whilst acknowledging the turbulent times that lay ahead, Ashida said that recession, if viewed as a time to adjust current and future over-tonnage concerns and overcome current weaknesses, will lead to future rapid progress. Speaking of the unfavorable conditions in which the shipping industry currently finds itself, he said: 'If we think calmly, the news is not all bad. Looking at demand and supply of tonnage, the over-tonnage anticipated in the near future may be prevented from happening.... If the market had dropped one or two years later, the massive volume of new vessels would have been delivered. It is not too much to say that this is an act of providence.'
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