EUKOR is a specialised

Roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...

shipping line formed in 2002. The company's main business is the sea carriage of new and used cars and High & Heavy cargo. The name of the brand EUKOR comes from a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words

Company profile

EUKOR is a South Korean company owned by

Wilh. Wilhelmsen Wilh. Wilhelmsen Holding ASA (WWH) is a Norwegian multinational maritime industry, maritime group, headquartered in Lysaker, Norway. The group employs more than 21,000 people and has operations in 75 nations. The Wilhelmsen group operates the la ...

along with

Wallenius Lines Wallenius Lines is a privately owned Swedish shipping company. The company was founded in 1934 by Olof Wallenius. Wallenius Lines is an investor and active owner within the global shipping industry, specifically the international car and roll-o ...

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics was a privately owned Norwegian/ Swedish shipping company, established in 1999 and co-owned by the two shipping companies Wallenius Lines and Wilh. Wilhelmsen. Overview Prior to its restructuring and division of ...

American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier is an American shipping line specialized in Roll-on/roll-off worldwide sea carriage. Overview ARC is the largest US-flag Roll-on/roll-off carrier, and the third largest US-flag shipping line overall operating in ...

, and

United European Car Carriers United European Car Carriers (UECC) is a Norwegian roll-on/roll-off shipping line, created in 1990 and based in Oslo, Norway. The company primarily transports cargo on short sea routes within Europe. History The company had its roots in Ugland-A ...

. The company tonnage comprise 80 PCC-PCTC vessels transporting about 4 million cars every year, mainly from

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

to the US and Europe. The main business consists in the maritime transport and distribution of cargo such as automobiles, trucks, trailers, Mafi roll trailers, heavy construction machineries and further types of rolling freight. Since 1999, when ''mv Asian Destiny'' was launched, the fleet started to include ships capable of carrying over 6,000 cars per voyage. Over half of the fleet's vessels include the word ''"Morning"'' in the first part of their names. The tonnage name idea is linked to the fact that Korea started to be internationally referred as " the Land of Morning calm", and its ruling monarchy the

Joseon Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...

, became known abroad as the "Morning Dynasty", when a book written in 1886 by

Percival Lowell Percival Lowell (; March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, and furthered theories of a ninth planet within the Solar System. ...

obtained large success in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in narrating the history of the country.

History

Before its re-branding as EUKOR in 2002, the pre-existing company was known as the RORO-Car Carriers arm of

Hyundai Merchant Marine HMM Co., Ltd. (), formerly known as Hyundai Merchant Marine, is a South Korean container transportation and shipping company. Overview HMM moves the largest portion of South Korea's exports, becoming the number one Korean national container car ...

. The division was inaugurated in the 1980s when its first car carrier vessel was purchased and named ''mv Hyundai No.1''. Since then, three shipping lanes to Europe, Australia, and India were opened, to compete with the three Japanese shipping lines NYK,

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Mitsui O.S.K. Lines ( ja, 株式会社商船三井, Kabushiki-gaisha Shōsen Mitsui; abbreviated MOL) is a Japanese transport company headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest shipping companies in the world. ...

, and

K Line is a Japanese transportation company. It owns a fleet that includes dry cargo ships (bulk carriers), container ships, liquefied natural gas carriers, Ro-Ro ships, tankers, and container terminals. It used to be the fourteenth largest contai ...

, in the cars transportation and break bulk sectors. After the purchase by

and

, the two Scandinavian companies each took 40 percent of the equity in the

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate ("chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai ...

car carriers division, whilst the two cars manufacturers

Hyundai Motors Hyundai Motor Company, often abbreviated to Hyundai Motors ( ) and commonly known as Hyundai (, ; ), is a South Korean multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, and founded in 1967. Currently, the company o ...

and

Kia Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...

split the remaining 20-percent equity stake. The two Korean carmakers committed to continue to ship their products exclusively through the new joint venture. The main purpose of the acquisition was to enable the two Swedish companies to fully enter the extremely profitable Korean export market. Through the deal, Wallenius and Wilhelmsen acquired a fleet of nearly 60 vessels that were carrying over 2 million vehicles per year. The acquisition required antitrust approval from the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

. To obtain this approval, the parties agreed to terminate the WALLNYK collaboration with

Nippon Yusen Kaisha Nippon Yūsen Kabushiki Kaisha (Japan Mail Shipping Line), also known as NYK Line, is a Japanese shipping company and is a member of the Mitsubishi '' keiretsu''. The company headquarters are located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It operates a ...

and agreed not to enter into any similar agreements with any competing carrier on the routes in question, without prior Commission consent.

Facts and accidents

On May 24, 2004 the EUKOR operated vessel ''Hyundai No.105'', sailing from South Korea to Germany, collided with a Japanese very large crude carrier (VLCC) close to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Sentosa island in the

Malacca Strait The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, conne ...

, one of the world's busiest sea passages. As result the Hyundai No.105 sank with a total loss of over 3,000 brand new Hyundai/Kia cars and an additional 1,200 used Japanese cars stowed on board. The crew was rescued but the ship could not be salvaged. On January 6, 2010 the British flagged ''mv Asian Glory'', carrying about 2,400 cars, most of them new Hyundai and Kia models, was sailing from South Korea to

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

, Saudi Arabia when it was captured by Somali pirates in the

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden ( ar, خليج عدن, so, Gacanka Cadmeed 𐒅𐒖𐒐𐒕𐒌 𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒗𐒒) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channe ...

. Asian Glory had a crew of 25, including 8 Bulgarians and 5 Indians, who were finally released in June 2010 following a ransom payment of an undisclosed amount that intelligence reports indicated was close to the $15 million that the pirates were demanding; allegedly, an amount similar to the ship's hull insurance cost and the value of the cargo on board. On April 19, 2014 a fire started on ''mv Asian Empire'' off the coast of Japan, when the vessel was en route from

Ulsan Ulsan (), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring ...

Balboa, Panama Balboa is a district of Panama City, located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. History The town of Balboa, founded by the United States during the construction of the Panama Canal, was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spani ...

. All 24 members of the crew had to be evacuated. A second fire broke out hours later; the reasons were investigated but remained unclear. Two salvage tugs had to be hired to tow the vessel to China for dry docking. In 2015 China fined EUKOR 284 million yuan ($42.5 million) for engaging in a cartel. A similar fine was applied to its sister company WWL. In 2016 Brazilian regulators raised a similar claim and required EUKOR to pay 15.9 million

reais The Brazilian real ( pl. '; sign: R$; code: BRL) is the official currency of Brazil. It is subdivided into 100 centavos. The Central Bank of Brazil is the central bank and the issuing authority. The real replaced the cruzeiro real in 1994. ...

. In 2017 a further suit was brought by the U.S.

Federal Maritime Commission The United States Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) is an independent federal agency based in Washington, D.C. that is responsible for the regulation of oceanborne international transportation of the U.S. It is chaired by Daniel B. Maffei. His ...

for price fixing and conspiracy. On February 21, 2017 the ''mv Morning Composer'' was hijacked by Libyan pirates off the coast of Misurata. The vessel was carrying 3,500 Korean brand new cars and 1500 used vehicles. The crew of 12 Filipinos, 10 Bulgarians and 2 Ukrainians were unharmed and freed to restart the journey briefly after the Libyan military intervened on 22nd early morning. On 28 May 2019, while alongside

port, a sudden fire broke out on a car deck of the EUKOR operated ''mv Platinum Ray''. The immediate action of the crew and fire brigades could contain the fire and extinguish it within five hours, limiting the damage to only 69 cars of the over 2000 stowed on board.

Ships gallery

File:Asian King, Fremantle, 2016 (03).JPG, Asian King File:Car carrier Morning Concert 2010-05-29 1.jpg, Morning Concert File:Car carrier Morning Caroline.jpg, Morning Caroline File:Car carrier MORNING CLASSIC en mer de Casabanca.jpg, Morning Classic File:MORNING CONDUCTOR (Ferry).jpg, Morning Conductor File:Car carrier Morning Margareta.jpg, Morning Margareta File:Panama Canal - Eukor Car Carrier.jpg, Morning Melody File:2013-05-03 Fotoflug Nordholz Papenburg HP 1418.JPG, Morning Lena

References

{{Reflist Shipping companies of South Korea companies based in Seoul Transport companies established in 2002 South Korean brands Car carrier shipping companies Ro-ro shipping companies

History

Facts and accidents

See also

Ships gallery

References