South Korea expects slow recovery in cargo traffic for September

Bird's eye view at Port of Busan

The Korean Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM, Minister Kwon Do Youp) announced that total containerized cargo volumes through major Korean ports reached 1,868,000 TEU in September, climbing 6.2% from 1,759,000 TEU during the same period in 2011.

Among them import cargo traffic and export cargo traffic each recorded 1,145,000 TEU and 699,000 TEU, up by 4.8% and 10.6%. But the offshore cargo volume dropped to 24,000 TEU, decreasing by 29.5%.

In August, monthly traffic declined for the first time in 34 months, but fortunately the situation instantly recovered in September. However, some analysts took a gloomy view about the situation being symptomatic of a wider global economic depression.

Especially traffic volume increases were affected by temporary growth before the fall harvest holiday, Chuseok.

Port by port, the traffic at Busan Port, the biggest port in South Korea, jumped to 1,431,000 TEU, up by 8.4% compared with September 2011.

Container cargo traffic at Gwangyang Port reached 161,000 TEU, increasing by 13.3% over last year. This result came from the growing consumer electronics trade with South East  Asia and the Middle East.

But the cargo traffic at Incheon Port declined to 150,000 TEU, dropping 11.9% because of slow trade with China.

A representative of MLTM said, "We're closely observing the changing situation while checking the nearby ports, especially China's," and "on the other hand, we are working to invigorate Korean ports through attracting international distribution companies, and developing logistic background complexes." < 김보람 기자 brkim@ksg.co.kr >