Hyundai Glovis Co., Ltd. is a logistics company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea and part of the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group. Its predecessor company, Hankook Logitech Co. Ltd was formed in February 2001. Hyundai Glovis supplies ocean transportation logistics advice, cargo space, loading/unloading, and packaging services. It changed its name to Hyundai Glovis in June 2003.
Company
The meaning of the name Glovis comes from a portmanteau that combines the two words "Global - Vision".
Hyundai Glovis main business areas in South Korea and internationally are finished vehicles distribution by Roll-on/roll-off ocean shipping, air transportation, inland truck transportation, logistics consulting, storage, and packaging services, as well as supply chain management services. Since 2011, the company has launched an auto parts recycling business, named "OnECO," that mainly consists of distribution of reused and remanufactured auto parts.
The company fleet includes 60 Pure Car and Trucks carriers and 36 bulk carrier ships, deployed on 13 different service routes globally, specialized in the maritime transport and distribution of cargo such as automobiles, trucks, trailers, Mafi roll trailers, heavy construction machinery and further types of rolling freight.
The fleet's size largely increased at the end of 2014, when Hyundai Glovis acquired the majority of STX Pan Ocean tonnage.
A joint venture with Stena Line has been announced and approved by the European Commission in February 2019, for the implementation of a new cooperative intra-European waters short sea service in between the two carriers, for the sea transport of transhipment cargo.
Facts and accidents
On 1 November 2013 the Port of Le Havre welcomed Glovis' maiden port stay in France. MV Glovis Condor called at the port on her way from Gothenburg to Southampton to load and unload cargo, mainly used trucks and military vehicles destined for the Middle East.
On 23 November 2014, Glovis announced the acquisition of the Polish logistics specialist distributor Adampol. The company owns 611 car carrier trailer trucks, manage 600 loads per day, and has a total staff of over 1,300 employees. The main business is storage, pick up from ports and distribution of new cars within Eastern Europe and Russia, with an average of 400,000 cars delivered per year to the final dealers, for brands such as BMW, General Motors, Toyota, and Volkswagen.
On 16 June 2016 the company reaffirmed their intention not to support the Federal government of the United States demands to employ or charter US-flagged vessels. The American Government has suggested on a number of occasions the opportunity to reflag or hiring vessels registered in US, to carry military equipment on Glovis' ballast leg from US to South Korea. However, due to the costs involved, South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries politely declined.
On 27 December 2016, MV Glovis Corona (built in 1996, and formerly known as MV Asian Grace) faced a serious near miss, due to severe weather conditions in the European North Sea. The vessel listed approximately 15 degrees, caused by cargo movements in the holds, when cars and high and heavy cargo broke their lashings, dangerously moving within the decks. The accident took place when Glovis Corona was sailing from Hamburg to Gothenborg, having to suddenly stop close to Bremerhaven anchorage. On 30 December a berth was granted at Bremerhaven, to discharge 1,800 cars, and to further ballast to even the keel. Owing to the situation, the export voyage had to be cancelled and the cargo bookings rolled to another sailing.
On 15 February 2018 MV Glovis Spring ran aground within the Paracel Islands waters. The vessel was sailing from Singapore to Hong Kong, with over 3,400 brand new European manufactured cars on board, when it ended up in shallow waters, possibly related to the shifting of landfill materials arranged by the Chinese authorities, and aggravated by extreme low tide sea conditions. Two Chinese companies immediately proposed to assist with the maritime salvage promptly sending divers and tugboats. The operation was finally awarded to a joint venture formed by Messrs Ardent and Guangzhou Salvage. MV Glovis Spring was successfully refloated, and made free 4 days after the grounding.