Cargoes in Inchon-China route increase, but rates decrease

Car ferry traffic volumes increased by 11% but traffic occupancy decreased by 16%.
After adding the containership in Inchon-Qingdao route June 23th, 2003, cargoes bound to China from Inchon increased but rates decreased.
According to MOMAF (Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries), after adding eight container ships in seven routes, cargoes in the Inchon-China route reached 226,106 TEU up 33.9% compared to last year. Meanwhile car ferry rates are down $100-$200 and containership rates are down $50-$100 per TEU.
Car ferry cargoes are up 10.6% with 172,927 TEU compared to last year's 156,327 TEU, but transportation occupancies are 76.5%, down 16.1% compared to last year's 92.6%.
Also containership cargoes are 53,179 TEU, up 324.2% compared to last year. Transportation occupancies increased to 32.3% from 6.8% and expectations are that they will continue to rise.
An insider at MOMAF said, "The car ferry rates decreased in the first stage of adding containerships in car ferry routes but it is increasing and the markets for car ferries and containerships are very different." He continued to say, "Adding containerships in car ferry routes made new markets and is not an invasion of the car ferry market to steal market share or customers. It has provided moderate logistics prices for shippers. We believe that this has raised competitive power for cargo transportation bound for China."