Report: SM Shipping to commence intra-Asia loop in March

The recently formed container carrier subsidiary of South Korea’s Samra Midas Group will launch a service between Busan and ports in China, Thailand and Vietnam in advance of a full transpacific offering in April.    SM Shipping, the recently formed container carrier subsidiary of South Korea’s Samra Midas Group, will commence its first service March 8 between Busan and ports in China, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a report from the country’s Pulse news service.
   The carrier’s intra-Asia offering comes in advance of a full transpacific service connecting Busan with the Port of Long Beach planned for April 21. Company officials have indicated the transpacific service will operate with five 6,500-TEU ships.
   Primarily known as a construction firm and parent of bulk carrier Korea Line Corp., SM Group bought a handful of the now-insolvent Hanjin Shipping’s containerships during the latter’s bankruptcy and liquidation proceedings in order to launch SM Shipping, which has also been referred to previously as SM Line.
   The SM Shipping fleet has an aggregate capacity of 47,000 TEUs and the company plans to expand that to 21 ships with a total capacity of 110,000 TEUs by 2018, according to Pulse.