Major state-run Asian lines making massive expansion plans is becoming a theme this September.
Media reported today on HMM, South Korea’s flagship, earmarking $17.5bn for expansion through to the end of the decade, while COSCO, China’s largest shipowner, has recently put pen to paper to a mammoth series of dry bulk and container vessels.
Getting in on the act, Indonesia’s Pertamina International Shipping (PIS), the shipping arm of the nation’s top energy producer, has outlined plans to grow its fleet to 500 ships by 2034.
PIS’s goals through to 2034, in an updated business plan, call for a tripling of revenues to $8.9bn and to grow the fleet to 500 ships – 200 owned and 300 chartered in.
Currently, PIS has 320 ships in its fleet, 120 of which are owned by the company.
Japanese shipowning giant Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) invested in PIS two years ago. The Pertamina unit is widely tipped to pursue an initial public offering next year.