Major South Korean shipping line HMM announced the expansion of ICN (Intra-Asia Cross Network) container service, which commenced last May.

Starting on 9 October, HMM's renewed ICN service will provide a convenient shortcut, seven-day route from Busan in South Korea, to Jakarta and Surabaya in Indonesia.

HMM will deploy six 1,700 TEU container ships and, as a pendulum service, consists of ‘string 1’ and ‘string 2’, covering Vietnam/Thailand and Indonesia, respectively.

The ICN service cross-operates in two routes:

• String 1 calling at Busan (South Korea) - Shanghai (China) - Ningbo (China) - Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) - Laem Chabang (Thailand) - Incheon (South Korea) - Qingdao (China) - Busan
• String 2 calling at Incheon - Qingdao - Busan - Jakarta (Indonesia) - Surabaya (Indonesia) - Busan - Shanghai - Ningbo

An HMM official commented, "Our renewed ICN service aims to extend our reach to Indonesia, one of our primary markets. We expect to provide our customers with increased connectivity and better operational agility within and beyond the region."

At the same time, HMM will also expand the port coverage of TTP (Tianjin To Philippines) service as of 10 October, adding the three ports in North China, Dalian, Tianjin, and Ningbo.

The port rotation of TTP service will be Busan (North & New) – Dalian (China) – Tianjin (China) – Qingdao – Busan (New & North) – Shanghai – Ningbo – Kaohsiung (Taiwan) – Manila (North & South, Philippines) – Busan (North & New).