Two of South Korea’s largest shipping companies Hanjin Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine have announced their intention to exchange customer operation services on their lines connecting Asia and the Eastern coast of the US.

According to both companies, this will allow them to keep their customers and retain the revenues. The agreement presumes mutual use of both company’s vessels on feeder services and varying the starting and the ending destination points with possible route extensions.

The new type of service will be used on Hanjin’s All Water North Atlantic (AWN) line and on Hyundai’s Suez Express (SZX) line. AWN starts in the Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung and then continues via Shanghai, Yangtian and Busan to New York and Norfolk via the Panama Canal. SZX line starts in Singapore, continues via Sri Lanka and UAE, via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, and then goes over the Atlantic to the Western coast of US. By operating this new service both companies will secure their presence on the Pacific and Atlantic routes with minimal inputs.

“We are also planning to continue creating similar services with other national and international companies” - says Hanjin official announcement.

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Hanjin Shipping Co. is South Korea’s largest shipping line operating 60 services all over the world. The company’s annual cargo turnover reaches some 100 million tones, its fleet consists of 200 vessels.

Hyundai merchant Marine is an integrated logistics company managing its own fleet consisting of more than 110 vessels of different types. The company’s earnings for 2008 reached some $3 billion.