THE South Korea government plans to offer more scheduled tonnage heading to the Americas and Europe through June, as local exporters face soaring freight rates from the Covid crisis, reports Yonhap news agency.
Under the plan, the country will offer a total of six shipping schedules to the Americas with a total capacity of 32,800 TEU this month, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
South Korea will also arrange six shipping services to Europe through the end of June. The country said it is also working with local airliners to arrange chartered flights for exporters within this month.
South Korea, which earlier allocated KRW7 billion (US$6.23 million) to supporting shipping costs for small and medium-sized businesses, said the budget will be expanded to KRW12.1 billion.
Some 420 exporters are expected to receive subsidies from the government within the first half of 2021, according to the ministry.
To cope with supply shortages in containers, South Korea plans to lease out 43,000 containers by the end of July, along with 17,000 additional units over the second half.
In the January-March period, the total volume of export container cargo processed in South Korea came to 1.6 million TEU, up 3.2 per cent year on year.
Those to the Americas advanced 10.4 per cent over the period to reach 261,000 TEU, and those to Europe edged up 3.7 per cent to 163,000 TEU, according to the ministry data.
source:Schednet