Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, stated that if he is elected president, he would transfer the headquarters of major shipping and logistics companies, including HMM, to Busan. However, there are concerns in the industry that the transfer of headquarters will have little effect on job growth. The expected tax revenue for Busan city is estimated to be around 10 billion won annually.
According to the shipping industry on the 21st, if HMM transfers its headquarters to Busan, it will be required to pay local income tax to the city. This is under the local tax law, which requires corporations with an obligation to pay corporate tax in the area to pay 10% of their corporate tax amount.
HMM's corporate tax for last year was 78.2 billion won, which means that if its headquarters were in Busan, it would owe approximately 7.8 billion won to the city. This 7.8 billion won represents 0.05% of Busan's budget of 15.6998 trillion won last year. Even when adding the estimated local income tax from last year's corporate taxes of SK Shipping, H-Line Shipping, SM Shipping, and KSS LINE, which supported the transfer of their headquarters to Busan, it does not reach 10 billion won.
Most of the headquarters organization of shipping companies performs functions such as container network management, sales, strategic planning, finance, legal affairs, and marketing. Collaborating with shippers, service providers, and relevant agencies frequently makes it more efficient to have the organization in Seoul.
For the same reason, the Danish global shipping company Maersk is headquartered not in its largest port city, Aarhus, but in the capital, Copenhagen. The global shipping company ONE (OCEAN NETWORK EXPRESS) also operates its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.
HMM operates 21 departments and 72 teams domestically, with about 800 employees working in Seoul. There are around 200 employees stationed at the Busan branch, and when including the crew working from Busan as a base, the total number of related employees is about 1,100.
Even if the headquarters were to be transferred to Busan, there is a high possibility that the signboard would simply be changed to label the Seoul headquarters as a branch and the Busan branch as the headquarters.
A source in the shipping industry noted, "While the region may demand the transfer of the headquarters, it is hard to understand a presidential candidate declaring that 'he has even gained the agreement of HMM employees.'" The candidate remarked, "The biggest obstacle to moving the company is the employees, and it is said that they agreed," but HMM stated that there was no procedure to seek employee agreement.