IN Brief:
- Hyundai Glovis is handling APR cosmetics and SM Entertainment albums by air to destinations in North America and Europe.
- The forwarding work combines packing, customs clearance, airline routing, security, and destination delivery.
- The company is extending the same air logistics capability into artwork and other higher-value cargo.
Hyundai Glovis is expanding its air forwarding operation beyond the automotive logistics on which much of its international business was built, adding beauty, entertainment, and other higher-value cargo to its customer portfolio. Current contracts include APR cosmetics moving to Los Angeles, London, and Amsterdam, alongside SM Entertainment albums destined for Chicago and other US cities.
The logistics group is managing the movements from packing and customs clearance through airline routing, loading, and final delivery. Several hundred tonnes of APR cosmetics and SM Entertainment albums were covered by contracts during the first half of 2026, giving the air operation a meaningful volume base rather than leaving it as a small trial around individual shipments.
The two cargo types place different demands on the forwarding process. Cosmetics need packaging capable of protecting products against leakage and impact, while some shipments must also satisfy hazardous-material packing requirements. Exporters must then comply with destination-specific product and chemical rules, adding documentation and handling requirements before the freight reaches an aircraft.
Music products create a different combination of physical and commercial risks. Hyundai Glovis applies restrictions on multi-tier stacking for album cargo and uses tighter security procedures around new releases, where damage or unauthorised access before launch can create problems that extend beyond the transport cost itself.
Air freight gives the company greater control over those movements than slower modes where launch schedules or high-value products are involved. Hyundai Glovis negotiates flight and route options with airlines, then combines that capacity with its own origin and destination logistics activities rather than treating the airport-to-airport sector as a standalone transaction.
The operation is being supported by Hyundai Glovis’s logistics infrastructure at Incheon International Airport and by its overseas network. That gives the company a consolidation point close to South Korea’s principal air gateway while its international offices handle customs, local transport, and final delivery in destination markets.
The diversification comes as Korean beauty and entertainment exports continue to create substantial international freight flows. Korean cosmetics exports to 58 European countries reached 2.31 trillion won during the first half of 2026, while K-pop album exports increased 125% year on year to 382.3 billion won. The United States accounted for 110.1 billion won of album exports during the period.
Those figures do not put beauty products or albums on the same physical scale as finished-vehicle logistics, but tonne-kilometres are only part of the forwarding economics. Cargo requiring faster transit, controlled handling, additional packaging, customs management, and security can support a different service margin from high-volume movements organised primarily around equipment utilisation.
Hyundai Glovis has also started applying the same forwarding capability to fine art. The company recently handled the return to London of works by British artist Damien Hirst following an exhibition in Seoul, extending its air logistics work into cargo where condition, security, insurance, and handling discipline are particularly sensitive.
The widening cargo mix also makes greater use of infrastructure and commercial relationships already required for the company’s broader logistics business. Airline procurement, airport handling, customs capability, inland transport, and destination delivery can support several product sectors once the operating network is established, reducing dependence on one customer group or one form of freight.
That diversification is particularly relevant to a business historically associated with automotive logistics and the Hyundai Motor Group ecosystem. Beauty, entertainment, and art customers expose Hyundai Glovis to smaller and more fragmented consignments, shorter booking cycles, and different service expectations, requiring forwarding teams to manage individual shipment detail rather than relying on large repeating vehicle programmes.
The air freight expansion also follows Hyundai Glovis’s investment in the cargo airline sector. In 2024, the company invested 200.6 billion won in a fund established for Air Zeta, formerly Air Incheon, during the acquisition of Asiana Airlines’ cargo business. Forwarding contracts now provide a customer-facing route through which wider air logistics capability can be converted into recurring cargo volume.
That does not make every Korean cultural export an obvious air shipment. Rate, density, urgency, product value, launch timing, and inventory position will still determine whether air freight is commercially justified. For lower-value or less time-sensitive cargo, sea transport remains considerably cheaper.
Hyundai Glovis is nevertheless building a broader forwarding proposition around sectors where customers are prepared to pay for tighter transit and handling control. The next useful indicator will be whether beauty, entertainment, art, and other higher-value shipments develop into repeat international volumes large enough to make air freight a more material part of a logistics portfolio still dominated by automotive and industrial cargo.
