[ Korean Seaborne Container Trade Increased by 10.4 Percent ]

Export and import seaborne container cargo continues to show a big g
rowth.
According to the statistics complied by the Korea Shipowners’ Associa
tion, export and import container cargo shipped via domestic ports dur
ing the first half of this year amounted to 1,369,522TEU in total, up
10.4 percent over 1,240,554TEUs in the same period of previous year.
Of that volume, export container cargo amounted to 769,647TEUs, up 9.4
percent over the 703,217TEUs in the preceding year, and import contai
ner cargo 599,875TEUs, up 11.6 percent over the 537,337TEUs.
Regarding the trade volume by area, South East Asia accounting for mor
e than 30.6 percent share of total trade volume stood first with 492,7
06TEUs, up 31.0 percent over 376,147TEUs in the same period of last ye
ar.
Trades with South America amounted to 39,795TEUs(up 26.3 percen), Japa
n to 183,008TEUs(up 17.8 percent), Australia to 35,070TEUs(up 16.9 pe
rcent), Middle East to 85,527TEUs(up 13.3 percent) and Africa to 12,54
8TEUs(up 7.9 percent). On the contrary, North America from/to Korea re
corded 351,126TEU, down 1.3 percent over 355,688TEUs(down 1.3 percent
) and Europe 172,452TEUs(down 16.7 percent).
In the meanwhile, the container trade volume handled by Korean shippin
g companies recorded 610,553TEUs(44.6 percent) for a 7.6 percent incre
ase as compared to 567,517TEUs last year while the share of that volum
e declined by 1.1 percent.