HMM to Operate World’s Largest Container Ships Staring This April

Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) plans to introduce the world’s largest container ships on its Asia-Europe routes starting this April.

HMM will put into operation a total of 12 24,000-TEU super large vessels, one per week, staring this April, the Busan New Port Terminal said on Jan. 12.

The container ships are under construction at Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and will be the largest container ships operating in the world.

HMM will start its services as an official member of “The Alliance,” one of the three major shipping alliances in the world, on April 1, 2020. It will share loading space with other members of the alliance, including Hapag-Lloyd of Germany, ONE of Japan and Yangming of Taiwan.

HMM uses PSA HPNT Terminal (Wharf 4) of Busan New Port as its home port. The shipping company owns a 50-percent stake in the terminal. The rest of the alliance fleet handle containers at PNC Terminal (Wharf 2) of Busan New Port.

HMM has not yet decided whether the 24,000-TEU container ships will make a call at HPNT Terminal or PNC Terminal and is expected to make a decision around the end of March.
Source: Business Korea