News / HMM notches up billion-dollar loss, but carrier still plans to order more megaships

13/02/2018

Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) slumped to a KRW1.2trn ($1.1bn) net loss in 2017. And this follows a KRW484bn loss the year before, bucking the industry trend of improved profitability.

However, seemingly undaunted by the magnitude of its continued losses, the South Korean carrier is to invest $95m ...

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Ingvar Bergman
February 14, 2018 at 7:35 am
Why HMM orders mega ships ? Because they do not wish to fall short of being the only one not having mega-ships in their fleet and thereby not in a position to save USD 115/teu on the bunker bill compared to a 13000teu ship on a round voyage. As far as I understand this became a paperproduct never tested but if Maersk says so, its got be correct. Pity that it was Maaersk for once revealing a correct figure (or was it false?). If it had been one of the others – the industry had probably given it a second thought prior to running to the builders. They might have come to the conclusion that the 13/15000teu workhorses, were sufficient for the trade. The 20 triple-E ordered by Maersk in one go for a total bill of USD 3,,8 billion (!) was the root for the eroded Asia/Europe trade which still will suffer for another 2-3 years although 2017 seems to have given a temporary but welcome relief, as I see it

But the question remains open – what is behind the HMM’s plan for ordering ?

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