Joint venture to speed up Hyundai Glovis' auto shipping business in Europe

A cargo vessel operated by Hyundai Glovis is docked in the German port city of Bremen, where it has set up a joint venture with BLG Logistics. Courtesy of Hyundai Glovis

By Yi Whan-woo

Hyundai Glovis said Wednesday it set up a joint venture with German shipping company BLG Logistics in the port city of Bremen, where the latter's headquarters is located, in a bid to expand its auto shipping business in Europe.

The establishment of the joint venture, BLG Glovis BHV GmbH, makes Hyundai Glovis the first among 11 major auto shippers in the world to have a private loading space in the northern German city.

Known as an industrial hub in Europe, Bremen is especially notable for auto shipping, with an annual average of 200,000 cars being exported and imported there over the past three years.

The car brands mostly include those from Europe, such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen.

“Bremen can be said to be the heart of the global car shipping business, and this shows the significance of the joint venture,” a Hyundai Glovis official said.

Through the joint venture, the logistics arm of Hyundai Motor Group will have exclusive rights to use three berths, plus a 100,000 square meter-sized loading dock, in Bremen.

The three are among the five berths of the Kaiserhafen auto terminal.

The loading dock has the capacity for 5,000 cars.

Hyundai Glovis viewed that the private work space will be effective to speed up the shipment of Volkswagen cars, after the two sides signed a five-year contract for business cooperation in 2020.

The contract was the biggest auto shipping deal in Hyundai Glovis' history. It includes the transportation of Volkswagen cars produced in Europe to China 10 times per month.

“The private space will definitely be a plus to deliver the cars faster and more accurately,” the official said.

The Korean company has been seeking to expand its own loading space for car shipments around the world.

The size of those spaces combined are equivalent to 143 football fields.

Among the spaces are a berth constructed in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province in 2018 and a loading dock in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the United States.

“We will fully capitalize on the network connecting Korea, the U.S. and Europe to increase sales,” the official said. “We will aggressively expand our business to be exceptionally competent.”