HMM Shareholders Approve Moving Headquarters from Seoul to Busan

South Korea's largest shipping company, said its shareholders approved a plan to relocate the company's headquarters from Seoul to the southeastern port city of Busan. The proposal passed at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on May 8, 2026. It came after HMM management and the labor union reached an agreement on the headquarters relocation last week.

HMM plans to complete the necessary legal procedures for headquarters relocation within May 2026. The company intends to move the chief executive office to Busan by the end of 2026. Busan is located about 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

The relocation follows the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries' move from Sejong to Busan in December. That shift was in line with President Lee Jae Myung's pledge to develop Busan into a major maritime hub in Northeast Asia. Smaller shipping firms have joined the southward shift.

SK Shipping Co. H-Line Shipping Co. has decided to relocate its headquarters to Busan as well. President Lee Jae Myung expressed hope that HMM's relocation would strengthen the competitiveness of South Korea's shipping industry and support balanced regional development.

He pledged government support for HMM's relocation plan. 's headquarters office in western Seoul is seen in this photo taken May 6, 2026, two days before the decisive shareholder vote. Yonhap reported the sequence of corporate and government actions that have converged on Busan within the past six months.

The extraordinary shareholders' meeting wrapped up what company officials described as a carefully negotiated internal consensus. With legal procedures now targeted for completion before the end of May, the full physical transition of executive functions will stretch into late 2026, giving managers and staff time to adjust to the new base 330 kilometers from the capital.