Hanjin to use Freeport as central Med hub

Hanjin Shipping Company Limited is to transfer its Far East and central Mediterranean service to the Malta Freeport.

The first vessel, Hanjin Taipei, is expected to arrive in Malta on June 12.

To service its sales and marketing, port agency, cargo handling, transhipment and its feeder service, Hanjin Shipping of Seoul has appointed Sullivan Shipping Agencies Limited as its Malta agent.

Hanjin Shipping will be operating two weekly Asian services and will also be offering their own weekly feeder connection between Malta, Koper and Venice, starting mid-June.

Sullivan Shipping chairman John E. Sullivan said his company was "honoured to be appointed as agents of one of the most important shipping lines in the world.

"This agency appointment will help to give us the right platform to offer our clients a variety of new services with an established global shipping line," he said, adding that Hanjin Shipping's transfer of operations to Malta Freeport is a vote of confidence to Malta and the services offered by Malta Freeport.

"We have decided to move operations to Malta because of the island's strategic and convenient geographical location in the Mediterranean. Although Malta is a small island state, it holds a strategic position in the international shipping trade, which is very important to a shipping line like ours," Hanjin's managing director Europe T.H. Lee said.