Korea's Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) has confirmed it plans to order mega-containerships in the first half of this year.
The vessels will be used in US and European trades and will comply with the new IMO sulphur regulations from 2020.
CEO CK Yoo said: “New environmental regulations are expected to drive changes not only to the shipping industry but also to competitive market environments.
"I believe that HMM can secure competitiveness in a global market after 2020, if HMM arms itself with eco-friendly mega-containerships in preparation of environmental regulations.”
Back in Europe
The company, which has previously pledged to double its fleet capacity, also revealed it is launching a European containership run outside of its 2M cooperation deal with Maersk Line and MSC.
The Asia-North Europe Express (AEX) service starts in April, it said.
HMM will use 10 4,600-teu ships between Pusan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Kaohsiung, Shenzhen, Singapore, Colombo, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Southampton, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Yoo said: “The 2020 environmental regulation will be an important market-changing factor in shipping industry and the new independent AEX service will be the touchstone of a game-changer.”
The loop has been opened due to increased demand for faster runs.
HMM has previously been utilising 2M's vessel capacity in Europe.
HMM was linked to orders for between 12 and 14 ships of up to 22,000 teu last year, but any deals are believed to be dependent on funds from state-backed Korea Maritime Corp (KMC), which is being formed in July to combine three existing funds.
KMC will have capital of KRW 5bn ($4.7bn), with domestic owners likely to try to tap into it for financing.
Last year, HMM’s volumes jumped 30% to 4.03m teu, mainly in Asia, US and European trades.
