By Mike Wackett
There is much talk in Seoul that South Korea’s flagship ocean carrier, HMM, will shortly announce it has ended its run of 21 consecutive quarters of losses, and finally moved into the black.
After the demise of its larger compatriot, Hanjin Shipping, in 2016, the Korean government has taken a “whatever it takes” strategy to support HMM, pumping billions of dollars into the carrier and enabling the ordering of 12 24,000 teu ULCVs – the largest containerships in the world by capacity.
However, the joining of THE Alliance in April this year has proved to be the turning point for HMM in its recovery from the dark shadows of Hanjin.
