Busan: ‘business as usual’ post Hanjin

Jinsun Shin, general manager/Euro representative office, Busan Port Authority, told Port Strategy that after the Hanjin shipping receivership, BPA is trying its utmost efforts to keep operations at the port running smoothly.

She told PS: “As of now, there are no vessels arrested and Hanjin vessels are calling at Busan Port with terminal operations being conducted without any problem.”

The BPA has provided an empty container yard outside of Hanjin Newport Container Terminal (HJNC) to support the unloading of four Hanjin vessels – Hanjin Seattle, Hanjin Gwanseum, Hanjin Atlanta and Hanjin Chongqing, which are scheduled to berth at Busan this week.

Ms Shin said that this has been a great help in absorbing the cargo stacked at Hanjin Terminal at Busan New Port. As of now, the container stacking ratio at Hanjin terminal is 73.7%, only around 0.5% higher than the normal ratio of 78.2%. The other terminals at Busan Port are apparently operating as normal.

As an additional safeguard, the BPA is to implement a port due exemption for the ad-hoc vessels deployed on behalf of Hanjin, which is a part of the effort to normalise the cargo-flow at the port.

BPA has a 24-hour emergency response team at Busan New Port which have been monitoring the overall port operation with a careful watch on vessels’ arriving and cargo handling. It has also been keeping up the dialogue with five terminal operators at Busan New Port to address any issues.

It’s all been a bit of turnaround from the initial reports of several of Hanjin’s vessels being stranded off the coast of Busan because the company owed US$1.5 million to container security companies.

Although Hanjin Shipping vessels have been allowed to resume calls at Busan and Icheon after the South Korean government agreed to guarantee payment to service providers, the picture has been different elsewhere with reports of Hanjin’s vessels being detained in China and blocked from entering ports including Hamburg, Sydney and Long Beach.

So looking at the bigger picture it’s yet to be seen how harmful the issue has been to Busan’s transhipment volumes.