State-backed ship financing institution Korea Ocean Business Corporation (KOBC) has agreed to a third round of container leases with the country’s flagship liner operator, HMM.
KOBC announced on 17 December that it will lease 86,000TEU in 40ft containers, in order to overcome the well-documented container shortage that has plagued the industry since the peak season began in July.
Since October 2019, KOBC has signed three container leasing agreements with HMM, for a total of 280,000TEU. The government is HMM’s largest shareholder, with its stakes held through KOBC and other policy banks.
KOBC will order newly built containers through a wholly-owned special purpose company that will be the lessor in the contract. Competitive leasing rates can be offered as KOBC places large-scale container orders to get trade discounts.
In view of the ongoing container shortage, KOBC plans to expand its container leasing service to the other 13 South Korean liner operators, who will be surveyed to discuss their requirements.
Consultancy Drewry Shipping emphasised that the predicament is down to the slow return of empty containers from the US to Asia, due to lower Transpacific backhaul volumes, and not because there are insufficient containers for the industry.
Drewry said, “It is the disruption to container supply chains wrought by the unprecedented number of blanked sailings, which reached as high as 30% of sailings on some trades back in Q2, that led to the current shortage of empty containers in key cargo demand centres such as China.”
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
