South Korean shipping major Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) is exiting from the transatlantic container trades by terminating service of two loops linking North Europe and the United States.
The move effectively withdraws HMM’s status as a global liner. Following a massive restructuring two years ago, HMM has tried to focus on tradelanes that it knows best, with a strong push on intra-Asia, the transpacific and latterly Asia-Europe.
A spokesperson from HMM confirmed to Splash that the company is pulling out from the TA2 and TA3 services offered through cooperation with partners MSC and Maersk of the 2M vessel sharing agreement.
“This is taking place as HMM would like to concentrate more on our core tradelanes,” the spokesperson said.
HMM signed a collaboration agreement with 2M to launch the transatlantic services in March last year.
The TA2 and TA3 services link destinations including Bremerhaven, Felixstowe, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Le Havre, New York, Norfolk, Charleston and Savannah.
According to a notice HMM sent to customers, the final voyages of the westbound loop on TA2 and TA3 are scheduled for June 25 and June 24 respectively, while the on the eastbound loop, the final voyages on TA2 and TA3 are scheduled for July 13 and July 31 respectively.
