Transshipment cargo processed at South Korea’s largest seaport of Busan shrank more than 6 percent in October due mainly to a logistics disruption stemming from the court receivership of cash-strapped Hanjin Shipping Co., the world’s seventh-biggest shipper, government data showed.
Busan port’s transshipment cargo, or cargo processed here while en route to a final destination, fell 6.5 percent on-year to 817,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last month, while the port handled a total of 1.65 million TEUs, up 0.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans. A rise in exports and imports freight helped offset the decline in transshipment cargo.
Hanjin’s court receivership has sent ripples throughout the world, as the company’s container ships were denied entry to major ports, including Busan, due to asset seizure requests by its creditors. Hanjin Shipping accounts for roughly 10 percent of the cargo processed at Busan port, the country’s main maritime gateway.
As of end-October, Busan remained the world’s fifth-largest seaport in cargo volume, with China’s Shanghai in the top spot, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the total volume of cargo processed South Korea’s seaports came to 128.4 million tons last month, up 2.6 percent from a year earlier, the data showed. Container cargo gained 1.4 percent on-year last month to 2.2 million TEUs, while non-container cargo also climbed 1.1 percent to 90.3 million tons.
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