South Korea’s sea flag carrier HMM Co., formerly Hyundai Merchant Marine, is scaling up after it has become a formal member on The Alliance and will add 12 vessels in 24,000-TEU (twenty-foot equivalent) class to its fleet by August.

HMM is scheduled to unveil Algeciras, a 24,000-TEU container carrier built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, for the first time at Busan New Port on April 28. Algeciras, the biggest container ship in the world, will set sail for Ningbo, China, the following day.

The shipper will take delivery of all 12 units of 24,000-TEU container carriers by August, adding up 288,000 TEU to its current total cargo handling capacity of 450,000 TEU. The full deployment of the vessels is expected to make the company the world’s eighth largest container carrier.

The 12 ships will be exclusively operating in the The Alliance’s newly revised Asia-North Europe route FE4. HMM began servicing as a full member of The Alliance, one of the world’s top three vessel-sharing groups, from the beginning of this month. The Alliance, joined by Hapag-Lloyd of Germany, ONE of Japan and Yang Ming of Taiwan, offers 33 services at 78 ports across the globe, of which HMM will be responsible for 27.

As of 12:14 p.m. on Thursday, shares of HMM rose 4.32 percent to 3,740 won ($3.05).

By Choi Geun-do and Choi Mira

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