- HMM is offering 50 TEUs to Korean SMEs on vessels heading to Europe and 350 TEUs on vessels heading to the US through December
- HMM Nuri, the first of HMM’s eight 16,000-TEU-class newbuild containerships, was delivered to the shipping company last March
- The rest of the boxships are scheduled for delivery throughout 2Q 2021
Korean box carrier HMM will extend a program allocating cargo space on its ships for South Korean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) until the end of 2021.
HMM on April 2 said it signed an agreement with the Korea SMEs and Startup Agency (KOSME) to offer 50 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) on vessels heading to Europe through December 2021, according to a report from Korea JoongAng Daily.
The container ship also plans to extend to December its offering of 350 TEUs on container vessels heading to the United States, an initiative which started in November last year.
KOSME is a non-profit, government-funded organization established to implement government policies and programs for Korean SME development.
Korean exporters continue to struggle to secure space on ships as Covid-19 has resulted in high demand.
The agreement is part of HMM’s plan to “support Korea’s small- and mid-sized companies to gain competitiveness by offering smooth export through marine transportation,” said HMM CEO Bae Jae-hoon in a statement.
Newbuild delivery
Meanwhile, HMM Nuri, the first of HMM’s eight 16,000-TEU-class newbuild containerships, set out last March for its first voyage from the port of Busan in South Korea.
HMM’s 16,000-TEU container vessels are being built at the Ulsan shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries and are scheduled to be delivered from March throughout the second quarter of 2021, the carrier said in a release.
HMM Nuri is deployed on the Far East-Europe route under THE Alliance’s product plan. Its port rotation is Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Singapore, Suez Canal, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Southampton, Suez Canal, Yantian, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Busan.
HMM said it expects to strengthen its service competitiveness with a total of 20 mega vessels, including 12 of the world’s largest 24,000-TEU container ships acquired last year.
It plans to expand its capacity to about one million TEUs by 2022.
Photo courtesy of HMM
