Swiss logistics service provider Kuehne + Nagel (K+N) has expanded its less-than-container load (LCL) service in the Asia-Pacific with a new hub in Busan, South Korea.
The Busan hub will provide 12 new direct weekly sailings between key markets within the Asia-Pacific as well as from Asia-Pacific to Europe, North America, and Latin America.
Operated by Blue Anchor Line, Kuehne + Nagel’s in-house non-vessel-operating common carrier, Busan is the company’s fourth largest LCL hub in the region after Shanghai in China, Singapore, and Colombo in Sri Lanka.
In total, the forwarder’s total number of self-operated weekly LCL services from Asia-Pacific now reaches 430.
Meanwhile, Busan port is targeting a 3 percent increase in liftings in 2014, or 18.2 million TEUs from a throughput of 17.7 million TEUs posted in 2013, according to the Busan Port Authority (BPA).
The port will rely on enhancing its competitiveness as a transshipment hub to reach its goal.
At present, it handles about 8.6 million TEUs of international transshipment cargo yearly; it cornered 49.5 percent of the total container throughput in 2013.
Photo: Gilad Rom
