South Korean container line HMM has become Asia’s first major shipping line to put its name down to associate with the planned new Indian mega-port of Vadhvan. HMM signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) to collaborate on the development of the port, which received the go-ahead from the Indian government last June.
Under the MOU, HMM will support the development and operation of Vadhvan Port, a large-scale project by the Indian government to become one of the world’s top 10 container ports by 2040.
At full build-out, the port will have an annual handling capacity of 23m teu across nine container terminals, and JNPT is understood to have inked provisional agreements with a number of international terminal operators for a public-private-partnership (PPP) model. They include DP World, APM Terminals, PSA and CMA Terminals – all currently operating facilities in Nhava Sheva’s port area.
However, with a natural water depth of 20 metres, compared with the 15.5 metres at Nhava Sheva, the port could accommodate HMM’s 24,000 teu vessels, and will offer strong connectivity to India’s inland logistics network. Next month, HMM and ONE will jointly launch the India-North Europe Express (INX) service, which, according to the eeSea liner database, will also include Yang Ming – which would effectively make it a Premier Alliance product – and deploy 11 ships with an average size of 6,600 teu.
The first sailing will be the 5 February departure of the 6,350 teu Hyundai Oakland from Karachi, on a port rotation of: Karachi-Hazira-Mundra-Nhava Sheva-Colombo-London Gateway-Rotterdam-Hamburg-Antwerp-Karachi.
