According to South Korean news outlet Pulse, the country’s shipping sector is about to create a mega alliance, one national company supported by Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM).
The Korean Shipowners Association is planning to create a partnership between all 14 container carriers into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and create the Korea Shipping Partnership (KSP) shipping consortium.
The operations are expected to be launched in January 2018.
Under this new alliance, the carriers will cooperate to improve shared cargo capacity by adding new shipping routes and co-managing overseas terminals.
Last year, the largest shipping company of South Korea and the seventh largest carrier filed for bankruptcy. Since then, the rest of the shipping companies have been struggling to stay on the business.
Recently, HMM has been in conversations with 2M partners, Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) to consult if it should focus its activities on delivering trade to the US to meet the rising demand.
HMM’s spokesperson said: “As Maersk and MSC also deliver their products through our container carriers and vice versa on the US routes, we need to consult with them first.”
Hyundai Merchant runs 15-16 8,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) ships on the routes from China and Southeast Asian countries to Los Angeles and Seattle, the spokesman said.
Sources:
https://www.porttechnology.org/news/south_korea_moves_towards_national_shipping_alliance
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