Trade Financing for Shipping Companies Set to Become Easier with Integrated Certification on Trade Platform

[Financial News] Trade finance support for shipping companies is set to become more readily available. The Korea Shipowners' Association and the Korea International Trade Association, among others, have agreed to establish a cooperation framework based on a next-generation trade platform, making it easier for shipping export performance to be recognized.
According to the Korea Shipowners' Association on the 11th, it signed the previous day an MOU on establishing a service trade cooperation framework based on the next-generation trade platform with the Korea International Trade Association, Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE), Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), the Korea Artificial Intelligence and Software Industry Association, and the Korea Tourism Association Central Council, among others.
The MOU aims to bring together service export performance data currently dispersed across different industries and establish an integrated certification system to strengthen trade finance and policy support. The Korea Shipowners' Association hopes this will address the difficulties the shipping industry has faced in getting its export performance fully recognized and securing financial support.
Under the MOU, the shipping classification system will first be revamped to align with global standards. A system will also be established to use artificial intelligence (AI) to calculate and assess foreign currency earnings (sales revenue) from shipping services. By extracting export data for shipping services on this basis and sharing it with K-SURE and others, companies will be able to more readily secure export guarantees and insurance based on their service export performance.
According to the Bank of Korea, the shipping industry earned $27.6 billion in foreign currency last year and generated an average annual improvement of $30 billion in the services balance over the past five years.
Park Jung-seok, chairman of the Korea Shipowners' Association, said, "The shipping industry is a key infrastructure supporting the country's import and export logistics, as well as a leading high-value-added service export industry that earns an average of $30 billion in foreign currency each year. We hope this agreement will objectively demonstrate the export contributions of Korean-flagged shipping companies and lead to trade finance and policy support that they can feel on the ground."
[email protected] Kim Yun-ho Reporter