Hyundai Merchant Marine plans to employ up to 220 workers from sunken Hanjin Shipping as it pledged earlier to take some responsibility as the sole surviving sea carrier in the country.

According to HMM, it finalized terms of employment for 131 Hanjin workers as of Wednesday. They include office workers to be put to work at HMM headquarters, local staff working in overseas offices and ship maintenance workers.

About 60, who will work at the headquarters, will start from next Monday and will receive training.

An additional 41 workers including sailors are still in the process of being recruited. Their appointments will be made in the coming month.

“Once HMM secures more ships, the company will hire 40 to 50 additional sailors,” HMM said in a statement Wednesday. “This means a maximum of 220 workers from Hanjin will be taken over by HMM.”

“As we have hired talent from Hanjin through one-on-one interviews, we will not spare efforts in supporting the workers so they can adapt to HMM’s working environment as soon as possible and prove their worth to the full,” said Yoo Chang-keun, CEO of HMM.

Prior to HMM, SM Lines, a newly established container line under Samra Midas Group (SM Group), which acquired Hanjin Shipping’s transpacific operations, officially launched with 248 Hanjin workers.

While SM Group’s bulk carrier arm Korea Line Corporation was expected to carry out the acquisition process, the plan was changed after the line’s shareholders vetoed it. Five affiliates under SM Group, including Korea Line, invested in SM Lines so it could directly pay for Hanjin’s assets last Thursday.

The new shipping line’s goal is to secure 21 containerships operating on 12 routes and reach 1 trillion won ($837 million) in revenue by 2018, according to a company statement on Tuesday.

Source: Joongang