Korea debuts maritime and shipping index

A new South Korean maritime and shipping index for South Korea and Asia made its debut.

The Maritime Exchange Information Center (MEIC President Eon-Oh Lee) in South Korea announced it has concluded its six-month study for a stevedorage index and finally published the index report in June.

MEIC held a press conference on May 30th and announced the detailed plans for the index reports. Director Jeong-Ho Yeom of MEIC explained the center made the first draft for the weekly reports about the index in November 2011. The center has since published the reports for a test version on March 23th aimed at maritime experts and has collected feedback.

MEIC finally decided to officially release the reports to 1,000 experts for maritime & shipping finance organizations and related associations in June 2012.

Most in the shipping and maritime industry in Korea have had to use only the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) research from Baltic Exchange in the UK until now. However MEIC has now made their Korean dry index available. The center has also started on a rate index for containers that depart from Busan Port.

The weekly reports also contain information for dry bulk rates and chartering, biding situations, global economic trends, and worldwide ports states.

Mr. Yeom said, "South Korea has been a maritime power with the first place in the shipbuilding industry and the 5th place in ship retention levels in the world. However the people related with shipping and maritime have a thirst for knowledge and suffer from a lack of information."

He added, "I'm very proud to contribute to a step forward in the industry. Our center will continue studying for maritime indices in Asia and related derivatives." < 김보람 기자 brkim@ksg.co.kr >