ContainerPulse Liner intelligence
Match the 4-letter prefix on any container to its operator in our liner registry of 200+ carriers.

HMM

SCAC HDMU · Seoul, South Korea · founded 1976 · Premier Alliance

HMM (legal entity HMM Co., Ltd.) is a global mainline operator headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1976, the line has spent 50 years building out its container service network and today operates a fleet of 75 vessels under the SCAC code HDMU. Total operated capacity stands near 850,000 TEU, placing the carrier among the recognised operators on its core trade lanes. The company holds intermodal equipment under 5 registered ISO 6346 owner prefixes, which appear on every box it owns or long-term leases.

HMM is most active on the following corridors: Asia-Europe, Transpacific, Intra-Asia. Through its membership of the Premier Alliance, the carrier shares vessel capacity with ocean-network-express, Yang Ming on East-West services. Direct customer contact is available via +82 2 3706 5114 or the carrier's web portal at hmm21.com.

HMM container prefixes

Every intermodal container carries an ISO 6346 owner code — three letters identifying the owner, plus a single category letter (almost always U for freight containers). These four-letter prefixes are the fastest way to identify which carrier controls a given box. HMM has the following registered prefixes recorded in the BIC database. If a container in your possession begins with any of these codes, the box is owned by or leased on long term to HMM.

To track a container under one of these prefixes, contact the carrier directly using the bill-of-lading number or container number. Most ocean carriers expose a public tracking endpoint on their website that accepts either format. HMM publishes its tracking page under the main hmm21.com domain.

HMM sample transit times

Indicative point-to-point transit times for services on which HMM appears in rotation. Actual ETAs vary with vessel rotation, port congestion, weather and trans-shipment patterns. We update these figures every quarter against published carrier schedules.

OriginDestinationTransitFrequencyCorridor
Shanghai, China Los Angeles, USA 14 days Daily sailings Transpacific
Shenzhen, China Seattle, USA 16 days Weekly Transpacific
Yantian, China Vancouver, Canada 17 days Weekly Transpacific

How to track a HMM container

Tracking a HMM container starts with confirming the prefix. Look at the container's left-hand corner casting plate or the painted code on the door — the four-letter ISO 6346 owner code (e.g. HDMU) is followed by six numeric digits and a single check digit. If the prefix matches one in the list above, the box is on a HMM bill of lading. Visit hmm21.com, navigate to the carrier's tracking or "track and trace" portal, and paste the full container number. The portal will return current vessel position, the next scheduled port call, the estimated time of arrival (ETA) and the most recent equipment events such as gate-in, loaded, discharged and gate-out.

If the carrier portal does not return a result, the most likely causes are: the container has not yet been gate-in at the origin terminal, the bill of lading number is in a different format (check whether the system expects an MBL versus an HBL), or the box is moving on a partner alliance vessel rather than a HMM hull. In the last case, the prefix still resolves to HMM as equipment owner but the schedule data lives with the operating carrier. HMM's customer service can normally cross-reference the booking and route you to the correct alliance partner. Reach the carrier on +82 2 3706 5114 during European business hours.

Related ocean carriers

Operators most often compared with HMM on overlapping trade lanes: