HMM has increased the capacity on its Pacific Southwest Express (PSX) transpacific service since volumes from South Korea’s Incheon Port to the US west coast surged.
Flagship carrier
South Korea’s flagship carrier has now deployed seven 13,000-14,000 teu ships to the service, starting with newbuild HMM Emerald, which departed Incheon last week, with 3,451 teu loaded, replacing seven vessels ranging from 8,566 teu to 11,100 teu.
In February, HMM and its compatriot peer, SM Line, began exchanging slots on each other’s transpacific services, with SM Line doing so on the PSX.
Between January and May, container shipments from Incheon to the US went up by nearly 77% year on year, to 21,960 teu.
Incheon Port Authority (ICPA) said the PSX contributed 120,000 teu a year to throughput, and the larger ships would boost volumes by 40,000 teu.
A key gateway
Coincidentally, throughput at Incheon, a key gateway to the Seoul metropolitan area, reached an all-time high of 1.79m teu in H1 H24, surpassing the previous peak of 1.7m teu in H1 21. Exports rose 9% year on year, to 871,592 teu, while imports grew 7%, to 889,908 teu.
ICPA noted more exports of machinery, wood products, electrical equipment and textiles, while imports of plastics and chemicals increased.
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Source: Loadstar
