Between April and July, HMM cut its operating capacity from 479,000 TEU to 344,000 TEU as it "relinquished control" of some of its biggest and newest ships to Maersk and MSC under the terms of the 2M-HMM strategic cooperation agreement signed in December, Alphaliner said.
Three 13,092-TEU ships units and six 10,081-TEUers have been sublet to Maersk and MSC for three years. HMM has also chartered out two 8,566-TEUers to Zim and one to Hamburg Sud.
"HMM's fleet rationalisation follows its withdrawal as a vessel operator from the Asia - Europe and Asia - US east coast routes from April this year," said Alphaliner. HMM now buys slots from 2M carriers.
HMM, which went through painful restructuring last year, negotiated a deal with Maersk and MSC after being rejected by other alliances.