Container Trade Between Inchon and China Needed

It has been rumored that container trade between Inchon and China will
inevitably open soon. However, it will be necessary to give the Port
of Inchon autonomy. The Council for the Development of the Port of Inc
hon held a meeting to discuss ways to revitalize the Port of Inchon a
few months ago.
In that meeting, they stressed the necessity of regular container trad
e between Inchon and China. They said that since South Korea formed an
official relationship with China, the trade volume between Korea and
China has grown 24.5 percent annually on average. China has become Kor
ea's third largest trade partner in export volume, following the Unite
d States and Japan. Container cargoes between the two countries grew e
very year, except in 1998. Car ferry container cargoes in particular s
aw some spectacular growth.
Even though container cargoes through the Port of Inchon have increase
d, still now there exists no container trade between Inchon and China.
Experts say that this has caused distortions in logistic flows. Every
container cargo has to move through the Port of Pusan because there i
s no regular container trade from the Port of Inchon.
Analysts said that since Inchon is located in the center of North East
Asia and the Yellow Sea, it could help close distances between major
cities on the Yellow Sea, streamlining product distribution. The Port
of Inchon occupied a 27.3 percent share of export and 20.7 percent sha
re of import volume with China. In the limited case for Northern China
, specifically Tianjin and Qingdao, the cargoes bound for these areas
amounted to 892,257 TEU. Out of that volume, 470,961 TEU were handled
in the Port of Inchon, with 233,126 TEU bound for the greater Seoul a
rea. Out those cargoes, 115,055 TEU were carried by car ferry. The rem
aining volume was transported by container cargoes through the Port of
Pusan. Were remaining volumes handled in the Port of Inchon instead o
f the Port of Pusan, 34 billion won in logistic costs would have been
saved.
The Council for the Development of the Port of Inchon also insisted th
at the Port of Inchon must become autonomous, composed of a government
/industry cooperative. Nowadays, ports worldwide march for privatizati
on and localization to compete as central world ports. The council sai
d that while the Korean port system is maintained by the government of
korea, it will remain inefficient. Port plans and city plans often co
nflict, hindering harmonious port/city development. Further aggravatin
g the situation, government of korea control of port maintenance polic
ies and decision-making processes has restricted local government invo
lvement. The council said that an autonomous port system would be a go
od basis to keep pace with the global trend of privatization and local
ization in port maintenance systems.
They also said that the top ranking ports in the world usually had sea
side districts around them, and thoroughly restricted access to those
not relevant to the ports. As residential and commercial buildings sur
round the Port of Inchon, expansion is greatly restricted.