2007 Container cargo volumes at Incheon Port jump 20.2%

The final tally on the annual amount of container cargo volumes though Incheon Port for 2007 came to 1,655,436TEU.

As a result of the statistics from the annual port operation in 2007 totaled by Incheon Port Authority (IPA), the container cargo volumes from December posted 155,575TEU, helping the annual aggregate to exceed 1.65 million TEU in 2007. This represent a rise of 20.2% compared with the previous year’s cargo volumes of 1.38 million TEU.

The year-on-year increase rate of 20.2% in 2007 posted by Incheon Port is the highest compared with the 3 other major container ports in Korea. Specifically, Busan Port rose by 10.1% to 13,260,477TEU, while Gwangyang Port declined by about 2.8% to 1,706,291TEU during the same period.

Incheon Port Authority set its target container cargo volume for 2008 at 2 million TEU as a part of its aggressive marketing strategy including more provisions for shipping companies and shippers.

Incheon Port has recorded an average increase rate of 20% for the previous three years. It is set to compete well against Gwangyang Port for Korea's second largest container cargo handling port. The amount of container cargo volumes last year though Incheon Port came close to 97.2% of that of Gwangyang Port.

Considering the amount of container cargo volumes in 2007 at Incheon Port by region, the cargo volumes to China jumped by 24.4% in 2007 from the previous year to post 1,090,657TEU (accounting for 65.9% of the total container cargo volumes). The occupancy rate of the container cargo volumes to China increased by 1.9% in the same period, implying the amount of international trade with China is on the rise at Incheon Port.

This was followed by Hong Kong (2.4% rise to reach 107,569TEU) while Thailand, 4th largest last year, rose to 3rd by gaining 9% from the previous year to post 55,861TEU in 2007. Meanwhile, container cargo volumes in Japan increased by 25.3% to record 42,883TEU while Malaysia decreased by 23.2% to 42,254TEU during the same period.

The total amount of container cargoes for 2007 through Incheon Port jumped by 6.4% over the previous year to reach 137.9 million tons. In the meantime, a total of 21,582 ships docked at Incheon Port, rising by 2.9% (4.5% in tonnage) during the same period.

For automobile exports, a total of 545,391 units were shipped including 474,070 new cars and 71,321 used cars, increasing by 17.9% in 2007 from a year earlier. New car exports, in particular, shot up 32.5% during the same period due largely to GM Daewoo’s booming exports. <Korea Shipping Gazette>