[280217.EN.SEA] SM Line Offers Only One Transpacific String Starting March

SOUTH Korea's brand new liner firm SM Line is cutting back on its original plan to launch two strings to the US west coast in March by offering only one service, according to analysts at Alphaliner.

The new service - China America Express - will turn in five weeks with five former Hanjin ships of 6,655 TEU capacity connecting Shanghai, Ningbo and Busan to Los Angeles, Singapore's Splash 24/7 reported.

SM Line recently bought a total of eight former Hanjin 6,655 TEU ships for around US$96 million. It has also purchased the 4,253 TEU Hammonia Pescara from Germany's Hammonia Reederei as well as a 1,118 TEU ship from Hamburg-based Laeisz Schiffahrt in what has been a very fast fleet build up.

Late last year, SM Line officials outlined plans to grow the fleet to around 110,000 slots. The company was only officially unveiled in December. SM Line belongs to Samra Midas Group, best known as a Korean construction firm, but which also owns dry bulk concern, Korea Line.

SM Line has also been active on the chartering front, and has already fixed two ships, the 1,498 TEU, RCL-controlled Itha Bhum for a period of 4-12 months, as well as the 1,440 TEU Simatech Sapphire for a period of 4-10 months, both likely to be deployed on SM's intra-Asia network.

"We have seen shippers fail in the past because they had very weak customer networks and little experience in the trans-Pacific business, but our company has business know-how, human resources, and systems used by Hanjin Shipping in its 40 years of history as a shipper and 28 years of business experience on trans-Pacific routes," Kim Chil-bong, CEO of SM Lines, said in a recent statement.

"Our goal is to offer competitive pricing based on customised service to our customers, not offering them low cost against market trends."

Source : HKSG.