HMM Adds Temporary Vessel on Transpacific Route... Ships 60% of Small and Medium Shippers' Cargo

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyewon] HMM announced on the 4th that it has added one temporary vessel to the trans-Pacific route to support the smooth export of domestic companies.

According to HMM, the 4600TEU (1TEU equals one 20-foot container) class container ship "HMM Forward," which departed from Busan New Port Terminal, is scheduled to arrive at the ports of Tacoma and Los Angeles (LA) in the United States on the 11th and 17th of this month, respectively, carrying cargo from domestic export companies.

The HMM Forward loaded a total of 3700TEU of cargo, with more than 60% of the domestic volume shipped belonging to small and medium-sized shippers.

Starting with the Forward, HMM plans to deploy six temporary vessels this month alone. In particular, as part of the "Additional Support Measures for Export-Import Logistics" announced by the government on the 7th of last month, HMM will increase the frequency of temporary vessels on the trans-Pacific route from at least twice a month to four times a month starting this month. They also plan to actively support sections with insufficient capacity such as Europe and Russia.

Since August last year, HMM has continuously deployed temporary vessels 17 times to the US West Coast, 5 times to the US East Coast, 5 times to Russia, 3 times to Europe, and once to Vietnam. Last month alone, HMM deployed a total of five temporary vessels, more than one per week, mainly from Busan, including to Long Beach and Tacoma in the US (13th), Vostochny in Russia (18th), and Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Hamburg in Germany (18th).

An HMM official explained, "It is difficult to secure additional container ships in the current ship charter market, so we are mobilizing vessels operating on other routes, including multipurpose ships, as temporary vessels." He added, "We plan to further expand the deployment of temporary vessels to support the transportation of cargo for export-import companies," and said, "Continuous deployment of temporary vessels will be a great help to domestic small and medium-sized shippers who are experiencing difficulties in exports."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.