The South Korean government plans to increase maritime transport volumes to 140 million tons by 2030. In addition, it decided to increase the capacity of container terminals to 2 million TEU.

Back on April 15, after an extraordinary meeting of ministers, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of South Korea unveiled the “Plan for Stabilizing the Management and Improving the Efficiency of the Maritime Industry”.

In addition to the 3 trillion won industry support program that was announced in November 2022 (as part of the Maritime Competitiveness Plan), the new document includes an additional investment of 3.5 trillion won to improve the financial health of shipping companies countries.

The investment in the shipbuilding support program is 2 trillion won, with 1.1 trillion won going towards creating environmentally friendly bunkering infrastructure.

In addition, the South Korean government plans to expand the tonnage tax system to reduce the burden on ship-owners when purchasing ships and help companies during periods of low demand. The tonnage tax, which was introduced in South Korea in 2005 after the EU countries, was intended to increase the competitiveness of its own shipping companies.

The last point in the new plan to support the industry is to increase the warehouse space of container companies' terminals from the current 1.2 million to 2 million TEU by 2030.