The new terminal for Busan comes as the port has been plagued by congestion for months, leading carriers to suffer schedule delays or skip the port on European, trans-Pacific, and intra-Asia services.

The falling level of connectivity from Japan and South Korea to North America has led shippers to use short-sea services to China, where cargo is transshipped to mainline trans-Pacific services.

HMM joined its peers in delivering record third-quarter results, with rising demand, increasing rates, and continued supply chain disruption set to keep the profitability spigot gushing.

HMM’s unionized staff, operating around half of HMM’s container ship fleet, had voted in favor of a strike in August if no agreement was reached, while around 300 seafarers had signed resignation letters and threatened to join rival carriers.