The government is adding more ships to support shipping companies amid rising costs.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has announced support measures to prepare national carrier HMM and domestic transshipment operators to cope with rising freight costs.
This month and next, national carrier HMM will deploy three 9,000-TEU vessels on its trans-Pacific and Persian Gulf routes. By November, five 13,000-TEU vessels and two 1,800-TEU vessels will be added.
HMM will also deploy seven new 10,000-TEU vessels on its main routes, with the 1,685-TEU vessels being used exclusively by small and medium-sized enterprises to transport their goods to Southeast Asia.
To ease the burden of freight costs on small and medium-sized enterprises and support their cash flow, the government will disburse subsidies of up to 20.2 billion won ($15 million).
In parallel, a temporary container warehouse will be set up near Busan New Port, offering up to 700 TEUs of storage capacity at a cheaper rate than the standard rate.
“To closely monitor trends and respond quickly, we will continue to operate an import-export logistics emergency response team and provide information through the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency,” a representative of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy explained.
Korea is not alone in planning for unscheduled services. CMA CGM (a French container shipping and logistics company) will also offer additional Asia-Europe sailings from the end of this month to early September, according to Alphaliner. Specifically, the French carrier will deploy seven 7,000-TEU vessels.
