News
South Korean ports handled a total of 1.786 million TEUs of containerized shipments in August 2012, according to a preliminary throughput report unveiled by the nation’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs （MLTM）.
The total amount went down 0.8% from the 1.801 million TEUs processed a year earlier, representing the first year-on-year decline in 34 months, or since October 2009.
At a time when the global economy was stagnant, adversely impacting South Korea and other economies, the Korean Peninsula was hit by Typhoon Bolaven, the 15th typhoon of the 2012 season, in late August, preventing domestics ports from accommodating ship arrivals and departures for nearly two days.
The ministry concluded these factors attributed to the decrease in container lifting.
In breakdown, exports and imports accounted for 1.092 million TEUs, improving 1.2% from 1.079 million TEUs, which was smaller growth than expected due to the slowdown in the Chinese economy, sluggishness in domestic demand and other reasons.
Meanwhile, transshipment （T/S） containers totaled 668,000 TEUs, which fell 2.4% from 684,000 TEUs owing to a set of multiple factors, such as the stagnation in the global economy, a decrease in containers to and from northern China and others.
