News
South Korea and China traded 619,921 TEUs of containerized shipments in the first quarter (January-March) of 2014, declining 1% year on year from 626,055 TEUs, according to a report compiled by an organization of shipping lines catering to the two Asian nations. Containers from South Korea to China fell 4.5% to 294,937 TEUs, but those from China to South Korea grew 2.4% to 324,984 TEUs.
Looking at shipments from South Korea to China by major destination port, the Yellow Sea Liners Committee (YSLC) report indicated that those destined to Shanghai increased 4.8% to 81,752 TEUs. In contrast, containers to Tianjin went down 9% to 49,064 TEUs; to Qingdao, down 10.7% to 43,240 TEUs and to Ningbo, down 9% to 29,264 TEUs. A decline was notable in those to Dalian, which plummeted 36% to 15,080 TEUs.
As for those from China to South Korea by port of origin, containers from Qingdao went up 2.6% to 63,826 TEUs and from Ningbo, up 8.9% to 19,341 TEUs. They were both so robust as to contribute to the overall growth and offset the reductions in those to Shanghai, Tianjin and Dalian, all of which fell approximately 1%.
As a consequence, the report added that containers from South Korea to China held a share of 48% of the pie, shrinking a minute 1 percentage point from 49%, while those from China to South Korea accounted for the balance of 52%, growing as much from 51%. The ratio of shipments from South Korea to those from China returned to what it was before the first quarter of 2013.
