HMM, South Korea’s largest shipping company, has announced that it will take delivery of two newbuild 7,700 TEU liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled container ships, which are the first LNG-powered container ships in South Korea.
HMM held a christening ceremony at the HJ Heavy Industries in Dongdo, Busan, on the same day, and two container ships were named ‘HMM Ocean’ and ‘HMM Sky’, which will be put into service in January next year.
The ships are owned by Navios of Greece and have been chartered by HMM for 14 years. After the delivery of the new ships, HMM plans to deploy them on a separate service connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Asian Far East, and to operate between Busan-China-India-Mediterranean Sea.
HMM Ocean and HMM Sky are the first LNG-powered container ships to be introduced in South Korea in response to increasingly stringent carbon emission regulations. The shipping industry is implementing numerous regulations, such as the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime, with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Kim Kyung-bae, president of HMM, said, “These LNG-fueled ships will greatly benefit the company’s operations, and we will do our best to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.”
HMM has ordered nine methanol-powered container ships from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and HJ Heavy Industries in 2023, to be delivered from 2025 onwards.