HMM sees opportunities even though Hapag-Lloyd exiting THE Alliance

A container ship of HMM (Photo: HMM)

According to previously announced information, Hapag-Lloyd, the world's 5th largest shipping line, will leave THE Alliance to form the Gemini Cooperation with Maersk Line next February, leaving ONE, HMM and Yang Ming as the main carriers remaining members in THE Alliance.

In this context, Mr. Kim said HMM will find a consulting company to come up with a medium and long-term strategy for expanding business activities in the upcoming period.

Responding to comments that HMM could strengthen cooperation with 'fellow Korean' shipping lines, he said: "Our basic position is that we will open any window for dialogue with local operators if there are opportunities. We always keep room for cooperation open.”

Among the remaining Korean shipping lines, in addition to SM Line, which operates more diversely on trans-Pacific and intra-Asia routes, other Korean container shipping lines mainly focus on domestic transportation service routes. ASIAN.

On April 15, when the Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries officially issued President Yoon Suk-yeol's plan to develop the Korean container fleet to 2 million TEU by 2030, HMM also revealed revealed that by that time, the company will build a container fleet with a total carrying capacity of up to 1.5 million TEU, compared to more than 800,000 TEU as of April 2024.

The Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said about 2.5 billion USD will be spent to help other Korean container shipping lines, which currently have a total fleet capacity of about 400,000 TEU, grow to 500,000 TEU.

Linerlytica expert Tan Hua Joo told The Loadstar that regardless of HMM, SM Line is the only shipping company operating long-distance routes in Korea, and SM Line can be considered a suitable partner for HMM. But SML's current fleet of nearly 70,000 TEUs is not enough to fill the gap in THE Alliance left by Hapag-Lloyd. THE Alliance's total fleet capacity will be about 2.5 million TEUs, making it the smallest shipping alliance, although both members ONE and HMM have plans to expand their fleets.

Accordingly, Mr. Tan commented: "The addition of SM Line will have an immaterial impact on THE Alliance’s competitiveness on the Asia-Europe and transatlantic where it will be significantly weakened by the departure of Hapag-Lloyd.”

Source: Phaata.com (According to The LoadStar) 

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