Source from gcaptain; TheLoadstar

SM Line has expanded its hold on HMMafter buying more shares, leaving the market to wonder if the rival SouthKorean ocean-going liner operators will eventually merge.

Last Thursday, SM Line purchased another3.77m of HMM’s shares for KRW100bn ($76.6m), taking the Samra Midas (SM)group’s stake to 6.29%.

Other SM companies, such as KoreaShipping Corporation, Korea Line Corporation (KLC) and STX Construction, aswell as group chairman Woo Oh-hyun, acquired HMM shares in a massive stockpurchase on 20 June.

SM Line announced today that it hadenhanced its Pacific Northwest (PNS) Service, which calls at Busan, Gwangyang,Yantian, Shanghai, Ningbo, Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, with an additionalcall at Canada’s Prince Rupert port.

PNS started in June,with six 6,500 teu ships. SM Line said: “Calling at Prince Rupert will notonly contribute to securing additional US and Canadian inland cargo, but willalso greatly help maintain punctuality due to the low congestion around theport.”