Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) has drastically slashed the operating capacity of its box fleet by more than a quarter in the space of three months. Alphaliner statistics show that between April and the end of June, HMM cut its operating capacity by 28%, from 479,000 teu to 344,000 teu as it “relinquished control” of some of its biggest and newest ships to Maersk and MSC under the terms of the 2M-HMM strategic cooperation agreement signed in December last year, the analysts noted in their most recent weekly report.
Three 13,092 teu units and six 10,081 teu units have been sub-let by HMM to its 2M partners for a period of three years while the Korean carrier has also chartered out three 8,566 teu units to Zim (two ships) and Hamburg Süd (one ship).
“HMM’s fleet rationalisation follows its withdrawal as a vessel operator from the Asia – Europe and Asia – US East Coast routes from April this year,” Alphaliner explained. HMM now buys slots on these tradelanes from the 2M founding partners, Maersk and MSC.
HMM, which went through a fraught restructuring last year, was forced to beg for a deal with Maersk and MSC after being rejected membership of other new container groupings.
