The total amount of sea cargo processed at South Korean ports reached 1.57 billion tons in 2017, marking an increase of 4.1%, compared with the previous year, according to data provided by the country’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
As noted, while shipments of automobiles showed the highest growth at 14.4%, followed by soft coal with 11.6% and machinery up 8.3%, the cargo traffic of sand and steel dropped significantly by 35.9% and 12.8%, respectively, Yonhap reported citing government data.
Further, non-container cargo rised 1.7% on-year to 1.09 billion tons, while container freight gained 5.4% to 27.42 million TEUs.
The Port of Busan, South Korea’s busiest port and the maritime gateway on the southeastern coast, handled 400.5 million tons of cargo in 2017. In late December, the Busan Port Authority noted that the port handled the largest cargo volume since its opening in 1876.
Busan volumes were followed by the southwestern port of Gwangyang with 291.83 million tons and Ulsan on the southeast coast with 202.36 million tons.
In addition, data reveal that shipments to China, the country’s largest trading partner, advanced by 9%, and those to the US rose 6.7% last year, helped by brisk exports of memory chips and petrochemical products.
