South Korea’s port cargo traffic up 7.6% in February

South Korea saw its shipping volumes grow significantly in February.

The Korean Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM, Minister Kwon Do Youp) stated that total container cargo volume at Korea’s major ports measured 119.6 million tons for February, which was up by 7.6% from 94.77 million tons in the same period last year. The accumulated volumes for the first 2 months of 2012 increased by 5.6% to 213.7 tons, versus 202.4 million tons for the period in 2011.

Port by port, Pyeongtaek․Dangjin Port showed the most notable growth, soaring by 31.6% to 8.811 million tons in February compared with the same period last year. On the other hand, Incheon Port saw its cargo volumes down to 11.1 million tons, a decrease of 9.4 % from February in 2011.

In addition, most Korean ports recorded pleasing growth - Busan Port and Ulsan Port noted double-digit rises in cargo traffic, with the ports measuring 21.4 million tons and 15.3 million tons, respectively, logging growth rates of 10.3% and 17.1%, respectively.

Daesan Port, Pohang port, and other ports also saw upturns of 6.3%, 11.9% and 9%, respectively, from the same month in 2011. However Gwangyang Port faced slight volume decreases down by 2.2% to 16.5 million tons from last year.

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Item by item, cars and ore traffic soared remarkably - each item increased by 31.7% and 25% to 4.483 million tons and 9.857 million tons, respectively. Cement also recorded double-figure volume increases, up by 13.3% to 2.755 million tons compared with February last year.

Besides the oil sector, soft coal, and chemicals increased slightly from last February, climbing by 4.9%, 0.7%, and 1.4% to 32.1 million tons, 9.713 million tons and 3.94 million tons each respectively. < 김보람 기자 brkim@ksg.co.kr >