News / HMM to return to the transatlantic, as ONE teams up with Ocean Alliance

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HMM has made good on its promise to return to the transatlantic trade, after a six-year absence.

The South Korean flagship carrier today announced thel launch of the TA1 service in February, through a collaboration with ONE, which said today it would market it as the AL5, connecting Northern Europe with ports on both the US east and west coasts.

The full port rotation will be: Southampton-Le Havre-Rotterdam-Hamburg-Antwerp-Miami-Cartagena-Rodman-Los Angeles-Oakland-Rodman-Caucedo-Southampton.

An HMM spokesperson told The Loadstar ten ships would be deployed on the TA1, but specific vessel assignments were still being discussed with ONE.

On 10 September, HMM unveiled its plan to return to the transatlantic, after exiting the lane in 2018, alongside a $16bn plan to invest in its container shipping business.

The HMM spokesperson explained: “Our decision to re-enter the transatlantic trade also aims to expand our service network and strengthen our global competitiveness.”

Meanwhile, ONE revealed today that it would operate three transatlantic services – AT1, AT2 and AT3 – with the Ocean Alliance partners, CMA CGM, Cosco/OOCL and Evergreen.

The three services connect North Europe with the US east coast and the news gives transatlantic shippers an early insight into the Ocean Alliance’s network plans for the trade in 2025.

The Ocean Alliance’s current Day 8 network, launched in April, is expected to be replaced by a Day 9 version, and the port rotations of the AT1, AT2 and AT3 services suggest a more focused approach to North America ports calls. From North Europe, the TA1 will only call at New York and Baltimore; the TA2 at Charleston and Savannah; while the TA3 will call at Veracruz, Altamira, Houston and New Orleans.

In contrast, the Ocean Alliance’s current TAT2 service has New York as its first US call, followed by Norfolk, Savannah and Charleston; while the TAT3 also has Charleston first, followed by Miami and then Mexican and US Gulf coast ports.

Taken together, the developments today also suggest a couple of takeaways for trade analysts and carrier customers: firstly, it would seem that rather than acting in a bloc, the Premier Alliance carriers are working out their transatlantic offerings mostly on an individual basis, and are likely to seek out VSAs with external carriers; and secondly, the port of Norfolk could well be dropped altogether from the Ocean Alliance’s 2025 transatlantic product.

Meanwhile, since September, transatlantic rates have been heading north after declining dramatically following a historical peak in 2022.

EconDB data shows transatlantic rates have doubled over the past year, following the implementation of higher FAK rates, peak season surcharges and the threat of industrial action by US east coast dockers. For example, current freight rates for Barcelona-New York are around $2,100 per 40ft, up from $1,000 this time last year.

Amd a recent Alphaliner report stated that mainline operators had diverted ships from the transatlantic to the Asia-Europe and transpacific lanes, as rates on the latter services jumped significantly due to the Red Sea crisis.

At least 91,000 teu of transatlantic capacity was moved to the Asia-Europe and transpacific routes, with MSC, CMA CGM and Evergreen among those transferring tonnage.