SEOUL, March 14. /TASS/. HMM (Hyundai Merchant Marine), South Korea's leading container shipper, has decided to suspend two shipping routes between the South Korean southeastern port of Busan and Russia's Far Eastern ports of Vostochny and Vladivostok over the situation in Ukraine, the Yonhap news agency reported citing the company’s representative on Monday.
"The temporary suspension of bookings for the routes is inevitable," the representative was quoted as saying. The current crisis has sent "cargo volume tumbling," the company said. "We will push to resume service depending on market conditions," HMM added, noting that the move was unrelated to global economic sanctions on Russia.
HMM had been operating one 1,700 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container carrier between Busan, South Korea's largest port, and Vostochny. It also used a same-size container ship run by another shipping firm on the route to Vladivostok, the agency said.
Industry watchers said HMM's decision may force other South Korean shipping companies to follow suit, which could impact South Korean exporters negatively, Yonhap said.
On March 4, the Danish shipping and logistics holding Maersk said it had suspended new sea and land transportation bookings for Russia.