Growth plans unveiled recently by top management at South Korea’s Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) have been slammed as “unrealistic” and “far-fetched” by container analysts Alphaliner in their most recent weekly report.
Top brass at HMM this month made bold predictions that it will 5% of the global liner market by 2021, more than double its current 2.2% capacity share.
Alphaliner has questioned this plan however noting that the company “failed to back up these growth plans with any coherent strategies”.
To achieve a 5% market share, HMM would need to expand vessel capacity from its currently operated 455,000 teu, to more than 1.1m teu over the next four years.
“In order to achieve its targeted market share, HMM would need to add over 650,000 teu of additional capacity by 2021 – a tall order, given that the carrier is currently not engaged in any newbuilding program,” Alphaliner noted.
Moreover, HMM management has publically stated the line will “be engaged in overly-active fleet expansion”, which Alphaliner said renders its capacity target even more “far-fetched”.
