THE
South Korean government is intensifying efforts to support the
country's liner shipping industry and shippers amid an unprecedented spike in
demand.
The nation's Vice-Minister for Oceans and
Fisheries (MOF) Park Jun-young recently announced that the government will
provide a KRW5 trillion (US$4.6 billion) investment in
33 ships by 2025, that will expand HMM's capacity by 250,000 TEU and lift the mainline
operators' volumes to Hanjin Shipping's pre-collapse levels.
HMM has taken delivery of a dozen 24,000-TEU
ships this year and in the first half of 2021, another eight 16,000-TEU vessels
will be delivered.
In
addition, to further alleviate the Transpacific shipping capacity crunch, the
ministry has directed HMM to provide at least two extra loader services, on top
of the single monthly service that has been offered since August, reports
London's Container News.
The
government is HMM's largest shareholder through state-backed policy lenders Korea Development Bank, Korea Ocean Business Corporation (KOBC) and
Korea Credit Guarantee Fund.
With
SM Line already offering monthly services from this month, there will be at
least three extra loader services. MOF had, in October, stated that around 350 TEU of the extra loader capacity had to be reserved for small and
mid-sized shippers, with this benefit to last up to this month.
However, Mr Park said that this benefit will now be extended to the end of January 2021.
KOBC
will also offer ships to local ship operators on an operating lease to ensure
that shipping capacity can be secured if cargo volumes suddenly increase.
Unlike finance leases, operating leases do not oblige lessors to purchase the
vessels when the lease ends.
Source
: HKSG.
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