Domestic shipping firms lessen liner ships and add more tramp ships

As of the end of last year, domestic ocean-going shipping companies showed that they decreased their liner ships, while more-or-less increased tramp ships.

According to the Korea Shipowners Association, as of December 2000, Korean ocean-going shipping companies lessened their container vessels to 210,812 TEU from 213,744 TEU a year earlier. In terms of gross tonnage (G/T), they reduced vessels to 2,567,084 tons from 2,611,738 tons a year ago. As of the end of last year, dead weight tons (dw/t) also a bit fell to 2,853,117 tons from 2,917,113 tons a year earlier.

However, tramp ships jumped drastically to 9,536,870 tons from 8,517,192 tons in 1999, in terms of G/T. DW/T also increased to 14,796,470 as of the end of last year compared with 13,845,156 tons a year ago.

This decrease in container vessels was in part accounted for by the restructuring of ChoYang Line, which sold off container vessels, reducing their fleet to 8,901 TEU by the end of last year from 14,301 at the end of 1999.

Increases in tramp ships were explained by the delivery of LNG vessels to Hanjin Shipping, Hyundai Merchant Marine, and SK shipping.