Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) has announced it wants to increase its market share of global East-West routes to 7% by 2021, according to a statement titled ‘HMM’s Future Plan’.
South Korea’s national carrier says it has also increased its Far East-Europe service by 50% since April, which it credits largely to its AEX digital booking service.
The carrier claims its cargo volume has increased from 3 million TEU in 2016 to 4 million TEU in 2017 and that it will rise to 4.5 million by the end of 2018.
According to the company, it has achieved this increase without expanding its fleet. However, it has said that it sees a new batch of megaships as being the main driver behind its future growth.
In September, it ordered twenty eco-friendly mega containers, including twelve 23,000 TEU and eight 15,000 TEU vessels.
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It believes the new, larger class of vessels are vital to its ‘Capacity of 1 Million TEU’ – an ambition to increase its fleet’s handling capacity from 350,000 TEU to 1 million TEU.
It is currently the twelfth largest container shipping line in the world – if it is to reach its volume target it will jump to seventh.
Furthermore, it also believes fuel efficiency will improve and bunker costs will moderately decrease through installed scrubber systems.
In its statement, HMM said: With the vessel deployment in 2020, HMM expects that fixed costs will significantly decrease, fuel efficiency will largely improve, and that bunker costs will moderately decrease through installed scrubber systems for compliance with IMO 2020 environmental regulations.
“The timely deployment with this combination of cost competitiveness is expected to attract customers, partners and investors.
“Cost competitiveness and the mega containerships is in line with ‘Capacity of 1 Million TEU’ strategy that will play an important role for HMM in obtaining economies of scale.
“This strategy will lead to additional cost reduction.”
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