Taking Up the Slack
Hyundai Merchant Marine announced on September 8 that it would form an alliance with Korea Marine Transport, Sinokor Merchant Marine and Heung-A Shipping. The alliance is going to run 15 ships in four maritime transport routes to and from Southeast Asia from late this month.
Specifically, the four routes consist of those between Gwangyang & Busan and Singapore & Malaysia, Gwangyang, Busan & Ulsan and Indonesia, Incheon & Busan and Indonesia, and Gwangyang & Busan and Vietnam & Thailand. The former two are newly put into service while the latter two are replacements of routes previously run by Hanjin Shipping. A total of five container carriers are newly put into operation, which are divided into one 5,000 TEU, one 2,800 TEU, two 2,200 TEU and one 1,700 TEU.
In the meantime, Hyundai Merchant Marine had a working-level meeting with 2M in Geneva, Switzerland on September 7 and 8. Issues discussed at the meeting included seaway management plans, use of ship space and measures for fleet competitiveness enhancement as well as a final contract between the two.