HMM in New Alliance Deal

Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) has agreed to form an alliance with competitors Sinokor Merchant Marine and Heung-A Shipping.

The company said on Tuesday that the HMM + K2 consortium will allow the companies to share ships as well as share and exchange slots. Plans also include joint investment in port infrastructure.

The deal is expected to be signed next month, ready to begin operation in March.

Sinokor Merchant Marine specializes in shipments between South Korea and China, and Heung-A Shipping focuses on shipments to and from Japan.

The HMM + K2 consortium will cover Japan, China and South East/West Asia trades and will be automatically renewed for successive two year terms.

The consortium is also expected to jointly develop new shipping lines to other countries, reports news agency Yonhap.

In November 2016, it was announced that Hyundai Merchant Marine would not join the Maersk-MSC 2M Alliance. Instead, in December, a new tie-up, called 2M+H Strategic Cooperation, was announced. The deal is a "slot exchange and purchase agreement" under which surplus capacity can be shared or traded.

The 2M+H agreement is scheduled to begin in April 2017 subject to regulatory approval. The initial term of the cooperation is three years with option to extend and covers key East-West trades.

In its latest quarterly Container Market Report, MSI concludes that the actions taken by liner companies, both in terms of consolidating service provision and also redelivering chartered tonnage, mean that the worst of the downturn is over for the globally competitive operators.