Pusan starts PR for shipping companies

The Port of Pusan, damaged by continuous trucker strikes and typhoon Maemi, started public relations activities to recover its tarnished reputation.
Pusan Regional Maritime Affairs and Fisheries held a meeting with 10 foreign shipping companies calling at Shinsundae terminal Oct. 7, hearing the shipping companies?requests to the government and terminal. The local MOMAF office will use the requests to establish strategies for Pusan PR activities scheduled for the middle of next month.
The representatives from foreign shipping companies said that Pusan really needs to supply various incentives to keep shipping companies at the port. They said that Pusan didn?t lose cargoes or calling vessels in the wake of trucker strikes and typhoon, in spite of confronting other difficulties, thanks to them. With Pusan Port Authority launching next year, they also required that the container tax be abandoned.
A source at one of the shipping companies said, ?t is necessary to lessen inconveniences caused by doubled-up reports with the same content and have a unified manifest system, and also for vessels to call on time with the help of the stevedoring unions. Port sales will be much more effective if the government sets the goal to visit Asian headquarters of shipping companies that decide on calling ports this November.?
The Pusan MOMAF office wholly exempted entrance fees of transshipment cargoes from this October to secure transshipment cargoes, on top of expressway toll exemptions for container carriers in Pusan from September.
The local MOMAF office has scheduled a visit to Singapore and Hongkong along with Pusan city, terminal operating companies and stevedoring unions in mid November.