The Korean private equity firm Hahn & Co. is reportedly in talks to expand its involvement in the shipping industry by acquiring all or part the shipping unit of SK Group, one of Korea’s largest chaebols.
Korean business publications and websites such as Aju Business Daily, Business Korea and Pulse cited SK Shipping’s debt and a downturn in shipping as a reason for the possible sale.
Hahn & Co.’s H-Line Shipping acquired a 76 percent stake in Hanjin’s bulk shipping business in 2013, then later acquired the remainder of the business in 2016, the same year Hanjin became insolvent and ended its liner service. The company also acquired the dry bulk business of Hyundai that year. H-Line has a fleet of 43 bulk and breakbulk vessels and seven LNG tankers
SK Shipping’s fleet includes a mix of crude oil tankers, gas carriers, dry bulk and breakbulk vessels.
SK Shipping’s website says it began offering breakbulk service between Asia and North America in 1995 and has “continuously expanded our service area, number of port callings and number of voyages. Now we operate periodic liner service covering all routes in North America to satisfy our customers’ needs.”
Those breakbulk ships transport “general cargo including finished or half-finished steel products and other cargoes such as yacht, weight cargo, machine and any loadable cargoes.”
SK Shipping says it has long-term contracts of affreightments with a number of steel companies in Korea, China and Japan, with key customers such as POSCO, SeAH Steel, Nippon Steel Corporation, Baosteel Group and China Steel (Taiwan).
A service map for its North American breakbulk service shows it operating throughout North America.