HMM expands global reach with new India-East Africa route

HMM, Korea's largest container shipping line, will launch a new container service connecting India and East Africa starting in September, the company said Wednesday. The new Gulf-India-East Africa Service will use the Indian ports of Nhava Sheva and Mundra as hubs to connect to East Africa, HMM said. The route marks the second African feeder network HMM has introduced under the "hub and spoke" strategy the company's container division has pursued since CEO Choi Won-hyuk took office. Under that model, large vessels move cargo along major global trade routes while smaller regional "feeder" ships branch out to connect additional ports. The first sailing will depart from Nhava Sheva in the fourth week of September, with five 2,800-TEU container ships deployed on the route. TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent unit, is the standard measure of a container ship's cargo capacity based on the size of a standard shipping container. Port calls will run Nhava Sheva (India), Mundra (India), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Mombasa (Kenya), in that order. HMM will jointly operate the service with China's COSCO Sh