SEVEN-MONTH old SM Line plans to add nine more vessels to its fleet by the end of this year, which it will deploy on intra-Asia and trans-Pacific trades, senior executives with the South Korean line said.

"We plan to acquire five 8,500-TEU vessels and four 5,000-TEU vessels by the end of the year," said president Kim Chil-bong and senior vice president Ki Hun Kwon.

"We want to launch our own services to India and Indonesia and to add services to Southeast Asian markets where demand is strong.

The 8,500-TEU vessels will be deployed on a new Pacific Northwest service and a new all-water US East Coast service planned for launch in April and May of 2018, respectively, the IHS Media reported.

SM Line's launch of services to the US East Coast could put pressure on freight rates, which have been higher than to the West Coast because smaller players like SM Line have not been active there.

The line currently offers space on seven intra-Asia services, four of its own and three via slot exchange. It has just one trans-Pacific service connecting Shanghai, Ningbo, and Busan with Los Angeles.

Mr Kwon said SM Line expects to hit its revenue target of US$380 million for the period from when it started operations to December of this year. The revenue target for 2018 will be in the region of $800 million as the line looks to build scale and business through the launch of the new intra-Asia and trans-Pacific services.

"We acquired our assets cheaply, which is a big benefit, and good demand on the intra-Asia routes should make that a profitable trade for us this year. We have more work to do on the trans-Pacific.

The nine new vessels will take the size of the company's owned fleet to 26. SM Line also operates four chartered vessels.

Mr Kwon said SM Line had little choice but to continue to operate as an independent carrier until it managed to secure larger vessels.

"If we want to join an alliance we need to secure bigger vessels. In the short-term at least, we need to stay independent."

SM Line operates two container terminals at Gwangyang and Incheon, both of which were previously owned by Hanjin Shipping. The Gwangyang terminal has four berths and an annual handling capacity of 1.1 millionTEU.

Mr Kwon said the company is eyeing the acquisition of more terminal assets, particularly in the United States, South Korea, China, and Vietnam.