Hanjin deploys new ships on Asia-Europe trade

Hanjin Shipping said it will deploy its two newest 6,500 TEU containers ships, the Hanjin Tianjin and Hanjin Xiamen, on its Asia-Europe trade.

The high-speed vessels will be deployed on the FEX (Far East Europe Express Service) in February and March respectively after being christened at Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, Korea on Feb 7.

The Tianjin and Xiamen are the fourth and fifth ships in the company's series of eight new 6,500TEU vessels that have a top speed of 27 knots.

Both vessels are 997 feet long, and 131 feet wide.

Hanjin said it will deploy all eight of the vessels in the class by early 2008 as part of its investment plan to make its fleet more competitive.

The port rotation of the FEX service is Xingang, Gwangyang , Busan, Kaohsiung, Chiwan, Singapore, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Felixstowe, Singapore, Kaohsiung and back to Xingang.