South Korean major Hyundai Merchant Marine unveiled its plans to expand cooperation with Russia’s FESCO on their China Russia North Service (CRN).
The company has jointly operated a China-Korea-Russia weekly service with FESCO and French shipping major CMA CGM.
With the expansion of cooperation, the current CRN will be reorganized and two of new direct services connecting Korea and Russia, named KR2 (Korea Russia Service 2) and KRS (Korea Russia Service), will be introduced in the service network of HMM.
Hyundai Merchant would deploy one 1,000 TEU vessel on the KR2, which directly connects Busan and Vostochny, while FESCO would place a 1,200 TEU vessel on the KRS, the direct service between Busan and Vladivostok. The commencement date of respective service is on May 11 for KR2 and on May 14 for KRS.
The current CRN will also change its port rotation to Qingdao-Shanghai-Ningbo-Vladivostok from May 14.
“HMM expects to provide a faster and more reliable service through increased cooperation with FESCO. Based on those three services, HMM will strengthen its market position in Russia,” a company representative said.
Hyundai Merchant teamed up with FESCO and CMA CGM on the China-Korea-Russia weekly service, namely the China Russia South Service, in March 2016 . Prior to the launch, HMM has been jointly operating the two services KRS and KR2 with FESCO.