Vice Minister Ki Jae: "Shipping Freight Rates Rising... Early Execution of 20.2 Billion KRW Export Vouchers"

Economic Relations Vice Ministers' Meeting · Price Relations Vice Ministers' Meeting

Kim Byung-hwan, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, attended the Emergency Economic Vice Ministers' Meeting and the Vice Ministers' Meeting on Prices held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 10th, and spoke about recent price trends. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

As the Red Sea situation prolongs and maritime freight rates continue to rise, Kim Byung-hwan, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, announced, "To alleviate the logistics cost burden on small and medium export companies, we will expedite the early execution of 20.2 billion KRW from the export voucher support for the second half of the year."

On the 14th, the Ministry of Economy and Finance stated that at the '42nd Economic Relations Vice Ministers' Meeting and the 24th Price Relations Vice Ministers' Meeting' held at the Government Seoul Office Building, chaired by Vice Minister Kim, they discussed the impact of rising maritime freight rates on export-import logistics, response directions, and checked the price stabilization response status by each ministry.

At the meeting, they reviewed the impact of rising maritime freight rates caused by the prolonged Red Sea situation and the push-out of China-origin cargo before the US tariff increase on China, and discussed countermeasures.

Due to the prolonged Red Sea situation, maritime freight rates are showing a steep upward curve. Last month, the transportation cost for European-origin sea import containers was on average about 1.85 million KRW per 2TEU, a 32.8% increase compared to the previous month. This marks the third consecutive month of increase following February (37.7%) and March (11.6%).

Vice Minister Kim stated that to reduce the logistics cost burden on small and medium export companies, 20.2 billion KRW from the export voucher support for the second half of the year will be executed early, the scope and period of special support for trade insurance will be expanded, and to proactively respond to concerns about ship shortages, 10 additional vessels (78,000 TEU) will be deployed by November.

Regarding prices, he evaluated that since the beginning of this month, favorable weather conditions and expanded shipping areas have generally lowered prices of agricultural products such as cabbage, cucumber, watermelon, and oriental melon, and petroleum prices have continued to decline for seven consecutive weeks.

Vice Minister Kim said, "To address supply concerns, tariff quotas will be applied to carrots until the end of September and to cabbage until the end of October to expand supply." He also added, "We will stockpile a total of 15,000 tons of cabbage and radish, and release all remaining stockpiles of 1,100 tons of seafood such as squid and pollock within June, continuing efforts to stabilize prices."

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