The service announced Wednesday, branded Gulf-India-East Africa (GIA), will connect the Indian gateway ports of Nhava Sheva and Mundra — where cargo from India and Central Asia converges — with Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Mombasa in Kenya.
It marks the carrier's second African feeder line under a strategy pursued since Choi Won-hyuk took over as chief executive.
The first vessel is scheduled to depart Nhava Sheva in the fourth week of September, with about five container ships of 2,800 twenty-foot equivalent units deployed on the loop. HMM will run the route jointly with China's COSCO Shipping Lines, Singapore's Pacific International Lines and Taiwan's Interasia Lines, and plans eventually to extend the service into the Gulf.
The new line complements HMM's existing north and west African route out of Algeciras, Spain, giving the carrier what it called a firm bridgehead across the continent.
Kenya and Tanzania, both undergoing steady port and inland-logistics development, rank among East Africa's principal gateways.
HMM has said it aims to grow its container fleet to 1.47 million TEU across 166 ships by 2030, and is securing feeder tonnage to work in tandem with its larger ocean-going vessels as shippers increasingly prize schedule reliability and destination reach amid a fractured global supply chain.
"This India-East Africa service is an important milestone in extending our hub-and-spoke strategy across the whole of Africa," said an HMM spokesperson, adding that the company would keep building out its network in high-growth markets.
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