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Scarcity of traffic at Busan new port
14 Nov 2007
Busan new port, which will be completed by 2015 at a cost of $9.2bn, is currently struggling to attract sufficient traffic to make a return on investment. The facility, which will eventually have 30 berths, is supposed to establish South Korea as a logistics centre in Asia.
New Port is half-owned by DP World (25%) and Samsung (25%). The former already has six berths operational and is due to inaugurate a further three next year. The Hanjin and Hyundai shipping lines are also due to open four berths at the end of next year. Despite this, throughput amounted to only 235,000 teu in 2006, against a projected 800,000 teu. Forecasts for this year suggest only 600,000 teu will pass through the port, despite the fact that the existing Busan transhipment hub is operating at close to saturation point.
Significantly, some lines, including MSC, have returned to the old port, where facilities remain good. More direct services to China now mean that transhipment hubs in Korea are not as attractive as they once were. Maersk has taken advantage of this situation by deciding to use the new port as from November, gaining highly favourable terms to bring in traffic of around 700,000 teu/year.
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