HMM’s New Megaships Sailed Fully-Loaded on Maiden Voyage

Photo courtesy HMM

HMM’s twelve new 24,000 TEU megaships carried a full load of containers during their maiden voyages from China to Europe, the South Korean shipping company said this week.

According to the carrier, all twelve of the vessels sailed from China with a full of around 19,500 TEU, their maximum allowable capacity.

The 12-vessel series was kicked off in April with the delivery of the HMM Algeciras, which sailed from China with 19,621 TEU loaded. The last vessel in the series, HMM St. Petersburg, set off on its maiden headhaul voyage on September 30 carrying 19,529 TEU, according to HMM.

The 24,000 teu-class vessels, the biggest ever constructed by container-carrying capacity, were ordered in 2018 at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and Samsung Heavy Industries. Each of the twelve of the vessels operate between Asia and North Europe on The Alliance’s East-West Network.

Delivery of the vessels came at a time of high uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on global trade. Despite the initial uncertainty, however, the shipping industry has actually benefited from a combination of high demand from inventory restocking, capacity crunches, and container repositioning. HMM reported a second quarter net profit of US $23 million on an operating profit of $115 million.

“HMM has led an effort to stabilize the logistics flow by deploying extra tonnage to the market where a swift delivery of cargo is required and fully operating its entire fleet without idle container vessels in the face of the recent surge in cargo demand,” HMM said in a statement.

“This is a major milestone for us to expand our presence in the global market in close cooperation with THE Alliance,” said Jae-hoon Bae, President & CEO of HMM. “I am delighted that our efforts and dedication have come to fruition, which gave us a much needed uplift. We will take a big step forward to prove what we are capable of in the years ahead.”

HMM has another eight 16,000 TEU ships on order at Hyundai Heavy Industries with deliveries planned for next year.