Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., South Korea’s second largest container carrier, would form a shipping alliance with smaller local rivals to jointly run Southeast Asian routes to make up for some of the shipping disruptions following Hanjin Shipping’s file for court receivership last week.

Hyundai Merchant Marine announced on Thursday that it was joining up with Korea Marine Transport Co., Sinokor Merchant Marine Co. and Heung-A Shipping Co. for shipping alliance in four Southeast Asian routes with 15 ships starting late this month.

The alliance would create a Gwangyang, Busan-Vietnam, Thailand route to replace a Southeast Asian route, which had been operated by Hanjin Shipping. It would also add a Gwangyang, Busan, Ulsan- Indonesia route and an Incheon, Busan-Indonesia route.

The container carrier would add one 5,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container carrier, one 2,800 TEU container ship, two 2,200 TEU container ships and one 1,700 TEU container ship.

“We formed the alliance to minimize losses for owners of goods in Southeast Asian routes caused by Hanjin Shipping Co. under court receivership and stand more formidably against global alliances, ” said an official of Hyundai Merchant Marine.

The company also said that it has been engaged in working-level negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, on the process for joining the world’s largest shipping alliance 2M consisting of world’s two largest container carriers Maersk Line, a shipping unit under A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, and Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. The company would discuss shipping routes with 2M until next month and sign a final contract in November. The joint service between the company and 2M would start from April next year. The alliance would be effective until January in 2025.

By Kim Jung-hwan

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