News
Due to the global economic slowdown, container throughput at South Korea’s Port of Busan decreased 1.5% year on year from 9,767,830 TEUs to 9,622,642 TEUs in the first half (January-June) of this year, according to a report complied by the Busan Port Authority (BPA). Transshipment (T/S) containers, which play a critical role in the port’s container lifting, waned 2.9% to 4,905,000 TEUs, suffering the first year-on-year contraction in seven years, or since the first half of 2009, when it diminished 13.1% from a year earlier. In contrast, exports and imports improved a mild 1.2% to 2,373,051 TEUs in total.
In detail, Pusan Newport International Terminal was responsible for 6,448,467 TEUs, which increased 0.9%. T/S containers, which had continued to grow quantitatively, began to sink this year, totaling 3,705,676 TEUs in the first half, which dipped 0.6%.
It is now unclear whether or not Busan will clear its goal of processing a total of 20 million TEUs of containers this year, as container throughput did not grow as much as expected at the container terminal.
