Temporary Vessels Added to European Routes

Minimizing Export Company Losses Due to Suez Canal Transit Disruptions

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced on the 25th that it will deploy an additional temporary container ship on the Europe route to minimize the impact of the Suez Canal transit suspension incident that occurred last month on export companies.

The vessel to be deployed this time is an HMM 4600TEU (1TEU equals one 20-foot container) class container ship. It will depart from Busan on the 26th carrying cargo from domestic export companies and is scheduled to arrive at Rotterdam Port in the Netherlands and Hamburg Port in Germany on the 27th and 30th of next month, respectively.

On the 23rd of last month, a Panama-flagged container ship (220,000 tons) measuring 400 meters in length ran aground in the Suez Canal in Egypt, causing a complete halt to canal transit. The Suez Canal is a key passage that allows trade between Asia and Europe without bypassing the African continent, and this incident disrupted the schedules of domestic export companies.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries decided to deploy temporary vessels proactively to prevent logistics disruptions that domestic export companies might experience.

Temporary vessel deployment will continue on the trans-Pacific route, where cargo volume is increasing. At the end of this month and early next month, HMM will add 5000TEU and 6800TEU class container ships to the trans-Pacific route. Earlier this month, two container ships of 6800TEU and 6300TEU were already deployed, and additional vessels are being added to respond to the surge in cargo volume on the trans-Pacific route.

For the trans-Pacific route, which is mainly used by domestic export companies, export cargo volume in the first quarter of this year was 260,922 TEU, an increase of 10.4% (24,600 TEU) compared to the same period last year.

During this period, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and national shipping companies deployed seven temporary vessels, transporting an additional 69.2% (17,019 TEU) of the increased cargo volume.

The Ministry plans to expand a project that prioritizes loading space allocation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in cooperation with HMM and the Small and Medium Business Corporation. This project prioritizes 350 TEU of dedicated loading space for domestic SMEs on regular trans-Pacific route vessels. Originally planned to support until April this year, the period has been extended until December.

Starting next month, this measure will also be applied to regular vessels on the Europe route, prioritizing 350 TEU per rotation on the trans-Pacific route and 50 TEU per rotation on the Europe route.

Seo Jeongho, Director of the Shipping Policy Division at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, said, "This year, due to factors such as COVID-19, global cargo volume is increasing and maritime freight rates are rising, showing a shipping market different from previous years. We will continue to do our best to support export logistics together with national shipping companies to back export expansion and economic recovery."

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