To Expand Service Network
Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) announced on Jan. 16 that it has jointly announced a service cooperation plan with other members of “THE Alliance,” a global shipping alliance that it will join as a regular member in coming April.
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) of the United States has recently approved HMM joining The Alliance. Accordingly, members of The Alliance, including Hapag-Lloyd (Germany), ONE (Japan), and Yangming (Taiwan), welcomed new member HMM and announced that they will start new services with HMM beginning April 1.
The shipping alliance plans to provide services on 33 routes by calling at 78 ports worldwide including those in Asia, Europe, the Mediterranean, North America, Central America, the Middle East, the Red Sea, and India.
It will put into operation a total of 280 high-efficiency container ships to cover the routes. HMM’s participation will boost the alliance’s service competitiveness.
The current Asia-Europe route FE5 and the trans-Pacific route PS7 will be operated in a pendulum manner. Eighteen 14,000-TEU container ships will be put into operation on these routes. The new pendulum service will increase the number of lines connecting the major ports of Southeast Asia and Southern California to three -- PS7, FP1 and PS3.
The newly launched trans-Pacific PS8 route covers ports in Korea and China including Incheon, Busan, Gwangyang and Shanghai.
The newly restructured Asia-North Europe routes FE2 and FE4 will be covered by the latest over-20,000-TEU ultra-large vessels in order to achieve economies of scale and eco-friendly operations.