News / Kukdong MES eyes global container leasing business as prices slump

Kukdong MES

South Korean container lessor Kukdong MES plans to widen its customer reach in 2026, particularly to emerging markets in Africa. The company cited growing global container trade, as well as the falling price of new containers.

A new 40ft container, which cost as much as $7,000 during a Covid-19-fuelled boom, now costs around $3,000, due to lower steel prices.

Kukdong MES said: “We have recently received 3,000 newly manufactured 40ft containers from Chinese factories, and all have been leased out.”

Recently, more high-value containerised cargo has been sent by rail from China to Russia and Europe, fuelling more demand for containers. In response, Kukdong MES is deploying a large number of high-quality new containers and leasing them to forwarders and shippers.

The lower cost of the new containers has also contributed to the expansion of container adoption.

In 2024, Kukdong MES’s net profit rocketed twenty-fold, to $1.84m, as demand soared as the Red Sea crisis tied up container supply. Now it plans to open more international offices to reach more customers.

Currently, the company has 16 offices in 10 countries, including the US, China, Poland, India and Russia. Notably, a new office was opened in Nairobi, Kenya, late last year.

Last month, Kukdong MES held a meeting in Shenzhen to discuss strategies for ordering and leasing-out new dry containers and reefers.

A company official said: “In the past, new containers were mainly distributed for sale, but recently, the business model has been expanded to include one-way charge leasing to meet customer demand.”

This allows customers to pick up a container at one location and return it to another, which avoids high costs for repositioning empty boxes and making this arrangement suitable for single routes.