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The South Korea government plans to invest around KRW 222.3 billion ($154.5m) this year to support the construction and conversion of a total of 81 eco-friendly ships.
With the support of public and private sector, the government plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping sector by “investing generously” for the development of eco-friendly ships.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) announced that it has prepared the ‘2025 Implementation Plan for Environment-Friendly Ship Distribution’ in accordance with the ‘1st Basic Plan for Environment-Friendly Ship Development and Distribution (2021-2030)’.
The government in 2025 will support the construction of 54 eco-friendly ships and 27 modified, with investments distributed between the public and private sector.
The public sector will construct a total of 34 eco-friendly vessels, whilst 15 ships in operation will be retrofitted.
In the private sector, support will be provided for the construction of 20 ships, and financial assistance will be offered for the installation of eco-friendly equipment on 12 vessels to reduce emissions.
The government enacted the Act on the Promotion of Development and Distribution of Environment-Friendly Ships in December 2018 to mandate the public sector to build environment-friendly ships and provide the private sector with a legal basis to reduce acquisition taxes and provide subsidies when converting into environment-friendly ships.
As a result, a total of 199 ships were converted into environment-friendly ships. In the past 4 years (2021 to 2024), 118 public and 81 private vessels have been built or modified.
Kang Do-hyung, minister of Oceans and Fisheries, said: “We will drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping sector by investing generously in small and medium-sized shipping companies to convert into environment-friendly ships and proactively respond to strengthening international decarbonization regulations.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced that Korea’s trade ports handled a record-breaking container volume of 31.73 million TEUs in 2024.
The figure represents a 5.3% increase (1.58 million TEUs) compared to the previous year’s total of 30.14 million TEUs despite significant changes in the logistics environment.
Export-import volume reached 17.68 million TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 440,000 TEUs (2.6%) with transshipment volume increasing by 1.15 million TEUs (9%) to 13.89 million TEUs compared to the previous year, both marking all-time highs.
