Exports drop amid Hanjin crisis

Partly due to the Hanjin Shipping crisis, South Korea’s exports decreased this month, data showed Monday.

According to the Korea Customs Service, the amount of exports fell by 3.6 percent to $13.5 billion from Sept.1-10 on-year. 

The monthly export amount rebounded in August with a 2.6 percent rise, after 19 months of decline.

By types of exported items, telecommunication-related equipment, vehicles, and home electronics plummeted by 21.3 percent, 30.8 percent and 25.7 percent, respectively.

By regions, exports to the US, European Union countries and China declined by 13.4 percent, 6.5 percent and 9 percent, respectively, while exports to Hong Kong and Japan increased by 12.7 percent and 7.4 percent respectively.

The customs agency remained cautious about the impact Hanjin is having on exports.

“While Hanjin Shipping does not make up a very large proportion of Korea’s total exports, (the KCS) is cautiously watching the export circumstances over (the Hanjin issue),” said the agency.

As of late Sunday, 82 out of 141 Hanjin vessels have had their operations disrupted, with many stranded at sea. The number of disrupted vessels dropped over the weekend as the US granted the company provisional protection from creditors on Friday.

On Saturday, Hanjin’s Greece container ship docked at the Long Beach port in California after days on standby.

As part of the moves to help normalize the freight transportation, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has vowed to dispatch public staff to local shippers and logistics companies to better receive complaints from them and provide administrative support.

It also decided to provide loans of 400 billion won ($360 million) to forwarders which have faced financial challenges over the rising cost of transporting the cargo.

Amid the Hanjin crisis, the local forwarders have complained that the shipping cost to reach the destination has jumped while the subject of shouldering the additional cost remained unclear.

Each forwarder will be eligible for loans of up to 2 billion won with an interest rate of 2.97 percent, the ministry said.

The ministry also decided to inject 11 additional alternative vessels for Southeast Asia-bound routes.

The government initially planned to deploy only 13 vessels for Europe and US routes. The first one from Hyundai Merchant Marine left for the US on Friday.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)