Marking its 50th anniversary on the 24th, HMM unveiled a new vision and growth strategy. HMM was founded on Mar. 25, 1976, as its predecessor Asia Holdings Shipping. The company name changed to Hyundai Merchant Marine in 1983, and it has used HMM as its name since 2020.
That morning, HMM held a ceremony at its headquarters in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, and announced a new vision, "Move beyond maritime." The vision reflects its determination to rise as the world's top integrated shipping and logistics corporations.
Along with this, HMM also announced "W.A.V.E" as the strategic direction for realizing the vision. These are strategies in the institutional sector of talent (W), innovation (A), value (V), and eco-friendly (E). HMM will adopt them as core strategies to prepare for the future and embark on a full-fledged leap.
Each stands for meanings such as talent made by top-talent (W), redesign all work smartly (A), realize value-based growth (V), and eco-friendly is not a choice but a transition (E).
HMM said this reflects the nature of the shipping industry, where the capabilities of skilled talent are competitiveness itself, and that it will secure future competitiveness through AI-based innovation. It also noted that it pursues growth centered on value that does not sway with external factors and that, by leading the eco-friendly transition, it intends to drive changes in the market.
At the ceremony, HMM CEO Choi Won-hyeok said, "Over the past half-century, we have experienced countless choices and challenges, hardships and successes," adding, "All achievements are thanks to the dedicated efforts of those who have worked at sea and on sites at home and abroad."
Choi continued, "Now our company must use its 50-year history as momentum to begin another voyage toward a 100-year perpetual corporations," and urged, "Let us all strive, through change and innovation for the future, toward becoming a global top-tier carrier."
HMM started in 1976 with three oil tankers and entered the full-container business in 1986. It then expanded its network to the Europe route, one of the world's three major routes, and in 1994 launched Korea's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier service.
Through this, in 1997 it continued to grow, achieving 10 consecutive years of profits in the highly volatile shipping industry. Although it faced severe difficulties during the downturn of the global shipping industry in the 2010s, it returned to profit in 2020 and set an all-time record in 2022 with an operating profit of 9.9455 trillion won.