South Korea’s main flag container carrier Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. has decided to add a new sea route that connects North China and West India. The Korean shipper has been operating routes to West India from central and southern China, but not northern part of China.

According to the company on Friday, the new service will be jointly run by four other carriers - Korea Marine Transport Co., France’s CMA CGM SA, Singapore’s Pacific International Lines Pte Ltd., and Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) - and connect major ports in North China and West India.

The five shipping companies including Hyundai Merchant Marine will operate the new route with six 4,600 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container vessels starting June 25 and provide the service once every week. The ports of call includes Tianjin, Qingdao and Ningbo in China; Singapore; Port Klang in Malaysia; Nhava Sheva, Mundra and Hazira in India; and Colombo in Sri Lanka. In a reserve course, it will stop at Port Klang, Singapore and Tianjin.

Hyundai Merchant Marine is already running six 8,600 TEU container ships with Hong Kong’s Gold Star Line Ltd. in the China India Express route that connects Korea, Central China, South China and West India.

An unnamed official from Hyundai Merchant Marine said that the new service will offer customers stable direct service that connects North and Central China to West India, and allow it to bolster its footing in the Far East and West India market.

Hyundai Merchant Marine has become Korea’s biggest flag-carrying container shipper after the country’s once leading Hanjin Shipping, which was also once the world’s seventh biggest carrier, bankrupted last year. The government has been grooming it as the country’s principal sea flag carrier in place of now-defunct Hanjin Shipping. In March, the shipper formed a strategic alliance of the world’s largest shipping alliance 2M, a move that is expected to help it enhance its competitiveness.

By Kang Young-woon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]