South Korean container carrier Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) has pulled out of a joint bid with the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) to acquire a majority stake in an operator of a container terminal at California’s Port of Long Beach, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Earlier this month, HMM and MSC teamed up to jointly bid on a 54 percent stake in terminal operator Total Terminals International (TTI), currently controlled by the struggling Hanjin Shipping . The remaining 46 percent stake in the terminal operator is already held by MSC.
HMM now plans to take a ”low double-digit stake” in TTI later on to save on cargo unloading costs, C.K. Yoo, HMM’s Chief Executive Officer, told WSJ.
Following the recently signed agreement to enter into a ”strategic cooperation” with the 2M Alliance of Maersk Line and MSC, HMM announced plans to take 5 percent of global market share by 2021.
The carrier currently controls 2.2 percent of global container capacity.
World Maritime News Staff