Hanjin Shipping Launches Hanjin Sooho

Chairwoman Choi attends launching of container vessel named after her late husband

Chairwoman Choi Eun-young of Hanjin Shipping saw her dream come true when she cut the rope in a ceremony to name a 13,100 TEU container vessel at the Hyundai Heavy shipyard in Ulsan after her late husband and former chairman of the shipping company, Cho Soo-ho. Along with the Hanjin Sooho, they also named the Hanjin Asia, a charter ship, the company said recently.
Chairwoman Choi attended the ceremony as the godmother, along with key executives of the shipping company that her late husband ran for a long time as an affiliate of the Hanjin Group. It marked the 43rd time that the chairwoman attended a ship delivery ceremony as the godmother.
The occasion also was dedicated to the late chairman to commemorate his managerial record that put the shipping firm on the list of the top 10 shipping firms in the world only 10 years after he took the helm of the company in 1994. He was able to increase the cargo transportation volume of his company three fold in just 10 years to make it number one in Korea and the 10th largest globally, earning nicknames such as the “Star” of the Korean maritime shipping industry and the International Shipping Mogul.
All of the ships in Hanjin’s commercial vessel fleet are named after cities and harbors in which they embark such as Hanjin Sidney and Hanjin Beijing, among others.
The shipping company named its first 10,000 TEU-class container ship built at a Korean shipyard the “Hanjin Korea.”
President Kim Young-min, in his congratulatory speech at the ceremony, said, “Now is the time for challenge as well as change and we have to secure competitive vessels and explore new territories to upgrade Hanjin Shipping as a top global integrated shipping firm.”
Both ships launched at the ceremony are mammoth container vessels over 336 meters in length, close to the height of the Empire State Building (380 meters) in New York, and can load 13,100 20-foot containers, the shipping firm said.
Hanjin Shipping is Korea’s largest and one of the world’s top-10 container carriers and operates some 60 liner and tramper services around the globe transporting over 100 million tons of cargo annually. Its fleet consists of some 200 containerships, bulk and LNG carriers.
Hanjin Shipping, an operating company of Hanjin Shipping Holdings has its own subsidiaries dedicated to ocean transportation, terminal operation, ship management, ship repair, and 3PL (third party logistics) serving various customers around the world.
With 6,000 employees in 60 different countries and 230 branch offices, Hanjin Shipping is building its global logistics network, which is also supported by the company’s 13 dedicated terminals at the world’s major hub ports and six inland logistics bases.
Aiming for flawless service for their customers, Hanjin Shipping is pursuing change and innovation at all times. Their efforts to provide advanced service show in their eco-friendly, state-of-the-art vessels, world-class logistics IT system, and automated terminals.
In addition, Hanjin Shipping is trying to fulfill its duties as a corporate citizen by adopting eco-friendly containers, developing a CO2 emissions calculator and establishing a management system of global standards based on ethics and transparency.
“With the belief in ourselves as a transporter of industry and culture, we at Hanjin Shipping will always stand by the values our customers believe in to become the world’s best total logistics company respected by the global community,” the company said.

Chairwoman Choi Eun-young of Hanjin Shipping at a recent ceremony delivering the Hanjin Sooho, a 13,100 TEU container named after her late husband and former chairman of Hanjin Shipping as godmother at the Hyundai Heavy shipyard in Ulsan.