Three foreign shipping majors agreed to lend out seven of their carriers to carry products on the route from South Korea and the United States amid surge in trade demand, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Wednesday.

The arrangement was made with the world’s top three container carriers – Maersk, MSC and CMA-CGM – who will add seven vessels sailing from Korea to the U.S. by the end of December.

According to the Port Management Information System run by the ministry, the total amount of cargo transported from Korea to the U.S. reached 64,073 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in October, up 19.1 percent from the same month a year earlier. The figure grew for the second consecutive month after gaining 19.5 percent on year to 59,657 TEU in September.

The nation’s sea flag carrier HMM Co. currently running 12 units of 24,000 TEU vessels has added four container carriers since August to boost its cargo capacity by 15,944 TEU. It is adding 350 TEU every week from Nov.21 to the end of December.

SM Line Corp. also leased a 3,000 TEU ship load cargo in Busan and sail to the U.S.

The cargo vessels are running short as the amount of international cargo volume has soared on the back of each nation’s economic stimulus policy after a plunge at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic earlier this year. The idled ratio in container ship fleet reached a record high of 11.6 percent of capacity in May, but it rapidly went down to lower than 4 percent after August.

Korean exporters have been suffering from the shortage of container vessels while orders are piling up. The cargo volume bound for the U.S. from Korea jumped 21.6 percent on year in October.

Rising shipping cost is adding another concern to the exporters. Foreign shippers who load cargo in China first and visit Busan along the way have been reducing loading in Korea to cut shipping costs.

By Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]