Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) has announced that it will relaunch the Intra-Asia Cross Network (ICN) service linking major ports in Korea, North China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia.
The ICN service will go into effect from 9 October and will be solely operated by HMM. It is also expected to provide the fastest transit time between Korea and Indonesia, taking seven days from Busan, Korea, to Jakarta/Surabaya, Indonesia.
The service was initially considered in May 2022, when Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub (LR) launched the ‘The Silk Alliance’ proposal to build a Green Corridor Cluster, starting with intra-Asian container traffic.
According to HMM, ICN is planning to deploy 6 1,700 TEU containerships as a pendulum service, with ‘string 1’ covering Vietnam/Thailand and ‘string 2’ covering Indonesia.
The port rotation of ICN service will be:
- (String 1) Busan (North Port) – Shanghai – Ningbo – Ho Chi Minh – Laem Chabang –Incheon – Qingdao – Busan(North Port)
- (String 2) Incheon – Qingdao – Busan (North Port) – Jakarta – Surabaya – Busan(New Port) – Busan(North Port) – Shanghai – Ningbo
An HMM official said: “Our renewed ICN service aims to extend our reach to Indonesia, one of our primary markets. We expect to provide our customers with increased connectivity and better operational agility within and beyond the region.”
More recently, HMM announced the usage of a sustainable marine biofuel in a trial run aboard its 6,400 TEU containership HMM Tacoma in Busan, South Korea.
