HMM has announced that it is urgently deploying temporary vessels on the Europe-Mediterranean route to transport export cargoes from domestic exporters to Europe.
Normally, ships traveling from Asia to the Mediterranean pass through the Suez Canal, but recent attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels on ships traveling on the Red Sea to Suez route have caused ships from global carriers to be diverted to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. As a result, the number of sailing days has increased by more than 15 days (round-trip basis) compared to the previous one, adding to the difficulties of domestic companies exporting to Europe.
As the shortage of European-bound vessels is expected to intensify, especially after mid-January, HMM has decided to deploy temporary vessels on European and Mediterranean routes. One 11,000 TEU (1 TEU is one 6-meter container) container ship will be used for the Northern Europe route, departing Busan on January 18, and three 4,000-6,000 TEU container ships will be used for the Mediterranean route, departing Busan on January 15, 29, and February 4, respectively.
"In order to introduce temporary vessels in a situation where there are no spare vessels, operational difficulties arise, such as relocating vessels on other routes, but we decided to introduce temporary vessels for smooth exports by domestic companies," said an official from HMM.
Meanwhile, HMM has used a total of 81 temporary ships to transport the cargoes of domestic exporters overseas during the COVID-19 pandemic, even when domestic companies faced difficulties in obtaining ships due to the global logistics disruption.
