Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light, though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning they, do not go gentle into that good night.
HMM expands global reach with new India-East Africa route
HMM’s 13,000-TEU container vessel, the HMM Dream / Courtesy of HMM
By Jhoo Dong-chan
HMM, Korea's largest container shipping line, will launch a new container service connecting India and East Africa starting in September, the company said Wednesday.
The new Gulf-India-East Africa Service will use the Indian ports of Nhava Sheva and Mundra as hubs to connect to East Africa, HMM said.
The route marks the second African feeder network HMM has introduced under the "hub and spoke" strategy the company's container division has pursued since CEO Choi Won-hyuk took office.
Under that model, large vessels move cargo along major global trade routes while smaller regional "feeder" ships branch out to connect additional ports.
The first sailing will depart from Nhava Sheva in the fourth week of September, with five 2,800-TEU container ships deployed on the route. TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent unit, is the standard measure of a container ship's cargo capacity based on the size of a standard shipping container.
Port calls will run Nhava Sheva (India), Mundra (India), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Mombasa (Kenya), in that order.
HMM will jointly operate the service with China's COSCO Shipping, Singapore's PIL and Taiwan's Interasia Lines — four carriers in total — with plans to later extend the route to the Gulf region.
The new service builds on HMM's existing MA2 route, which connects North and West Africa through a hub in Algeciras, Spain, giving the company a foothold for expanding its network across the African continent over the medium to long term.
HMM said Kenya and Tanzania, both newly added ports of call, are key gateway ports in East Africa where port infrastructure and inland logistics development are ongoing, and are expected to significantly improve service convenience for cargo owners.
As global supply chain uncertainty grows, shippers are placing greater importance on reliable schedules and connections to a wider range of destinations, HMM said.
The company said its hub-and-spoke strategy — combining ultra-large vessels on long-haul global routes with regional feeder networks — is intended to build a denser network that can respond flexibly to market changes and strengthen HMM's competitiveness in customer service.
HMM said it is continuing to secure competitive feeder vessels that can work in tandem with its existing ultra-large ships.
In a recent regulatory filing, the company said it plans to expand its container fleet to 1.47 million TEU across 166 vessels by 2030 as part of an upgraded mid- to long-term strategy.
An HMM official said the launch of the India-East Africa service marks an important milestone in expanding the company's hub-and-spoke strategy across the African continent, adding that HMM will continue to expand its network in markets with high growth potential and raise customer satisfaction through differentiated service competitiveness.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.