Hyundai also testing the waters

News is out on the SA shipping grapevine that another Korean container carrier, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), has been testing the waters for a service to South Africa. A local FTW source in the Far East shipping trade said: “I understand from news on the American Journal of Commerce (JoC) Online that Hyundai is also possibly looking to expand its service to Africa in the near future.” This followed reports as recently as October 18 that HMM had entered the East Africa sector through a slot charter agreement with the Emirates Shipping Line (ESL) India-Middle East- East Africa service the previous week. This is an every two weeks sailing, using three ships of 1 856-TEU capacity. While the HMM calls are limited to Jebel Ali, Mombasa, Dar Es Salaam, Nhava Sheva, Karachi, and Jebel Ali, the service also calls at Zanzibar, Nacala and Beira for the ESL account. The service is branded as EAS by HMM. HMM is ranked 18th of the world’s top 100 container lines by French shipping analysts, Alphaliner. The ‘carrot’ in front of the Oriental lines eyeing up Africa and SA, our Far East shipping source added, is that revenue earnings per TEU are comparatively good in relation to other global trades from the Far East. “But that,” said another FTW line contact, “will only be true until all that extra tonnage appears on the trade – and then rates will take another of those massive drops.” However, our optimistic source added, Africa has also become a major trading and investment partner for China – the ‘Giant Dragon’ of the Asian economy. “It has made major investments in projects to improve transportation facilities (ports, rail and road) in a few African countries already,” he said.