Export Crisis... HMM Deploys 6th Emergency Temporary Vessel in Ten Days

55% Are Allocated to Mid-sized and Small-to-Medium Enterprises

[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] HMM has urgently deployed its sixth temporary vessel to support export cargo shipments to the United States by domestic companies. This comes just ten days after deploying the fifth vessel.

HMM announced on the 10th that its sixth temporary vessel, the HMM Forward, is scheduled to depart from Busan Hyundai Busan New Port Terminal (HPNT) aiming to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles (LA) in the United States on the 21st.

Currently, the global shipping market is facing a surge in maritime cargo volume in the second half of the year after a contraction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, making it difficult not only to secure shipping space but also containers to load the cargo. Since August, HMM has been securing 1 to 2 temporary vessels monthly and deploying them on trans-Pacific routes to alleviate these difficulties faced by domestic exporters.

The HMM Forward, the sixth vessel deployed, is a 4600 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) class container ship, carrying a total of 3900 TEU of cargo on this temporary voyage. Approximately 55% of this cargo consists of shipments from small and medium-sized enterprises that have recently struggled with exports due to the global shipping supply shortage.

HMM plans to deploy one more 5000 TEU class container ship by the end of this month and will continue to deploy at least one temporary vessel every month until February next year. An HMM official stated, "The continuous deployment of temporary vessels is expected to greatly assist domestic shippers who are experiencing export disruptions," adding, "As a leading national shipping company, we will take responsibility and make every effort to ensure that exporters' cargo is transported without any setbacks."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.