Port traffic in Jan. 2011 records highest level for January

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (Minister: Chung, Jong-hwan) announced that monthly traffic in January, 2011 rose by 7.7% from the same month last year (97.44 million) to record 104.9 million.

With port-by-port, volume at Pyeongtaek-Dangjin Port is 20.9% higher than the same month last year, because of an increase of iron ore imports of Hyundai Steel, while Ulsan Port is 18.7% higher because of traffic increases of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

At Pohang Port and Gwangyang Port, however, each has decreased by 10.7% and 2.7% due to traffic decreases of anthracite and other products.

On the other hand, bituminous coal, cars and ore have seen steep increases by 26.6%, 22.7%, and 11.6% respectively from the same month last year; however, sand and articles processed with heat have decreased each by 16.2% and 0.2%.

Container traffic (1.66million TEU) in January recorded the highest level ever, which increased by 13.2% from the same month last year. The quantity of imports and exports was 1 million TEU, transhipments were 568 thousand TEU, and coastal shipments were 48 thousand TEU.

Busan Port, the biggest port in Korea, had container traffic of 1.23 million TEU, 73.9% of their total volume. Incheon Port's container traffic rose by 10.8%, while Gwangyang Port's fell by 2.0% compared to the same month last year. <Korea Shipping Gazette>