The government has given legislative notice of draft subordinate regulations, including the enforcement decree and enforcement rules, under the Special Act on Support for the Establishment of Green Shipping Corridors. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy have also jointly drawn up and are pursuing the Second Basic Plan for the Development and Distribution of Eco-Friendly Ships. The government set a goal of supporting the conversion of 889 eco-friendly ships by 2035. The related announcements were released in sequence from the evening of August 27, 2026, through the afternoon of the 28th.
A green shipping corridor is a policy approach that designates specific routes and equips them with both low-carbon and zero-carbon fuel ships and fuel supply facilities. The government described this special act as the world's first law on green shipping corridors. The law is understood to take effect in April next year. The move of the draft subordinate regulations into the legislative notice stage is a procedure to meet that schedule.
The Second Basic Plan was prepared to reflect changes in the technological environment and policy conditions at home and abroad. Three tasks were presented: advancing the conversion to eco-friendly ships, creating investment conditions for an eco-friendly shipping industry, and building a life-cycle carbon emissions management system. The government defined the development and distribution of eco-friendly ships and the establishment of green shipping corridors as the two pillars of shipping decarbonization. How much will be spent on each task and when was not included in this plan.
The figure of 889 is a target that combines private vessels and public vessels. How many ships go to each of the two sectors, and how the total is divided by ship type, were not released this time. Depending on where the vessels subject to conversion are concentrated, the character of the shipyards receiving orders also changes. If the work is centered on large merchant ships, the volume typically flows to large shipyards, and if it is centered on public service vessels and coastal vessels, it flows to mid-sized and smaller shipyards.
The government included in the support targets small and mid-sized shipbuilders and equipment makers, whose competitiveness is weak compared with large shipyards. The plan states that eco-friendly ship design and other areas will be supported for these companies. Support items and amounts beyond design were not presented. The same is true of the criteria for allocating support between large shipyards and smaller companies.
The government's framing of the eco-friendly ship conversion as a means of creating new work for the domestic shipbuilding industry also shows the character of this plan. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's director general for manufacturing industry policy said that through implementation of the Second Basic Plan the government would take an early lead in the global eco-friendly ship market and create work for the domestic shipbuilding ecosystem. A policy of pursuing an artificial intelligence transition to secure a wide technology lead for K-shipbuilding was presented as well. It means the phrase "creating work" was used as the language of industrial policy.
From the position of small and mid-sized shipbuilders and equipment makers, design support is an item that lowers the barrier to entry. Ships propelled by low-carbon fuels involve high design difficulty in fuel tanks and supply systems, so companies without their own design capability find it hard to win orders at all. Conversely, if the costs of demonstration and certification and the costs of retooling production facilities are left out of the support items, design support alone is unlikely to lead to orders. The breadth of the support items is the variable that determines how far the effect spreads.
On the scale of conversion support, both the figures 889 and 900 appeared. There is no settled explanation of whether this is a rounded expression or a separate count. The starting point for the 2035 target year and the plan period were also not presented in organized form.
The draft subordinate regulations will receive comments during the legislative notice period. How the support targets and requirements are written into the provisions will determine how far down in scale the volume of 889 ships reaches. What needs to be checked in the time remaining before the special act takes effect is the wording of the provisions. The 889 figure is a target, and the list of those who will share that target is written by the enforcement decree.
