South Korea’s flagship carrier HMM is in the process of buying five 5,000 TEU ships that it had been chartering from Capital Clean Energy Carriers Corporation (CCECC), reports container news.
Evangelos Marinakis’ CCECC announced on 23 September that it sold Hyundai Paramount, Hyundai Platinum, Hyundai Premium, Hyundai Prestige and Hyundai Privilege. The sales price was not disclosed, although CCECC expects to book a gain of US$118.4 million on the ships, as the attached loans have been repaid.
Company’s plan to expand
The purchase is part of the company’s earlier announced plan to expand its fleet by 1.55 million TEUs by 2030, as part of a US$16 billion investment scheme. Early this month, HMM confirmed to Container News that it was negotiating to buy three elderly feeder vessels too.
VesselsValue estimated each ship has a market value of about US$ 57 million, but HMM is likely to have obtained a competitive price.
In recent months, other mainline operators, such as MSC and Yang Ming, have bought chartered ships to grow their owned fleet while managing rising charter costs.
CCECC stated that selling the container ships is fully consistent with the strategy outlined in November 2023 to pivot the company toward gas transportation.
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Source: Container News
