Geopolitical instability and oversupplied market are continuing situations in the new year that may obstruct a positive outlook, says South Korean shipping company Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM).
In his New Year message for 2020, HMM president and CEO, Jae-hoon Bae, noted the significant uncertainties in the trade environment, brought up by Brexit and US-China trade war, have directly affected the world trade volume.
It is unpredictable whether the business environment approaching us will be a tailwind or headwind, nor can we control it as we wish,
…he said.
Mr. Bae also underlined the challenges associated with the new environmental regulations, especially the 2020 sulphur cap that came into effect.
Based on the substantive response to eco-friendly fuel and energy-efficient technology in ship design, we should set up and enterprise-wide R&D structure to actively cope with the environmental regulations paradigm change,
…he added.
HMM will commence a new cooperation with THE Alliance from April this year, while it expects twelve 24,000 TEU container ships from the second quarter 2020 to be deployed in the Far East-North Europe Trade.
