Transportation & Logistics Analysis

Busan - Le Havre: ocean freight rates are slightly decreasing

July 16 2019

This week, we’re back to looking at the the Asia / Europe corridor with some focus on South Korea. The South Korean economy is “reborn” following a phase of refinance and restructuring.

There is ample space aboard the ships, so there is no real summer peak season on this corridor.

Hyundai is leaving its “folding seat” within the M2 alliance, to enter as a proud full member of THE Alliance, joining ONE, HL and YML, with significant number of efficient new mega container ships entering the fleet in the coming months. Last year, Hyundai ordered 12 mega-ships containing 20,000 TEUs to be delivered by 2020, and 8 containing 14,000 TEU.

Samsung and LG, unlike Kia and Hyundai Motors which are more focused on RORO transport for their shipping needs, are the two strong volume locomotives, doing quite well in terms of performance thanks to their broad high tech and air conditioning product lines.

In a quite depressed European retail environment, beyond resisting, Korean branded products are now thriving, thanks to their good fit in terms of offer and demand on the western markets.

Photo credit: Hyundai

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Expert in Ocean shipping for 25 years, Jerome puts all his knowledge of the industry to contribution for Upply. Ship captain at heart, he has written the English-French Lexicon of Containerized Shipping (Paris: CELSE, 2001).
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