Korea-China route container shipping costs fall for 1st time in 9 months
A container ship from HMM is docked at a port of Busan, May 12, 2021. Courtesy of HMM
Container shipping costs from Korea to China fell for the first time in nine months in October, the customs agency said Friday.
The average shipping cost for a 40-foot container from Korea to China declined 6.9 percent from a month earlier to 767,000 won ($545.36) last month, according to data from the Korea Customs Service.
It marked the first on-month decline since January as the figure had been on the rise for eight straight months from February.
The average shipping costs from Korea to major partner nations, including the United States, the European Union, Japan and Vietnam, all went down in October from the previous month.
Compared with a year earlier, however, the shipping costs of the major routes climbed on rising shipment volume and the subsequent shortage of ships.
The on-year growth also came as carriers have been forced to suspend transit through the crucial Middle East maritime route due to strikes on ships in the Red Sea by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels based in Yemen, which have led to longer shipping time and an increase in shipping costs, officials said.
The figures include freight rates, commissions and other charges reported by local exporters, according to the agency. (Yonhap)