Hanjin Shipping launches new services connecting the Middle East

Hanjin Shipping announced the launch of a new service between the Far East and Red Sea starting from the end of February, 2009, and a a new service covering the U.S. East Coast ? Mediterranean - Middle East - India starting from January 8th, 2009.

Named RES (Red Sea), this new service will deploy six 4,000 TEU class vessels, of which 3 are supplied by Yang Ming and 1 each by Hanjin Shipping, K-Line, and China Shipping. RES will operate on a weekly basis.

Hanjin Shipping commented that the introduction of this new service between the the Far East and Red Sea will allow the company to broaden its service coverage in the Middle East as well as create a gateway to the North African market.

The new U.S. East Coast - Mediterranean - Middle East - India service, named IMU (India - Mediterranean ? U.S), is a combination of the current MIX (Mediterranean - India Express) and INX (India - North America Express) services. MIX runs between the U.S. East Coast, Mediterranean, Middle East and the Indian sub-continent with eleven 2,000 TEU class vessels, of which 9 are supplied by UASC and 2 by Hanjin Shipping.

INX operates between the U.S. East Coast, South East Asia and the Indian sub-continent with 8 ships. The partner carriers include Hanjin Shipping, UASC, K-Line and Yang Ming with each contributing 2 vessels.

As INX stopped operations at the end of December, 2008, the new service, IMU will substitute the current MIX and INX services so as to not to cause any inconvenience to existing customers. The service will deploy nine 4,000 TEU class ships of which 6 will be supplied by UASC and 3 by Hanjin Shipping.

Hanjin Shipping believes that the combination of the existing services, MIX and INX, and also the introduction of larger and faster ships, will upgrade their customer service by providing more vessel space and faster transit times in both directions covering the U.S. East Coast, Mediterranean, Middle East and India. <Korea Shipping Gazette>