Cargo processed at South Korean seaports edged down in February from a year earlier, due mainly to a drop in exports and imports, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
The country’s seaports handled a combined 111.878 million tons of freight last month, down 0.4% from 112.272 million tons tallied a year earlier, reported Yonhap.
Export-import cargo, which accounted for 83.5% of the total, fell 2.23% year-on-year to 93.419 million tons, offsetting a 10.4% year-on-year jump in domestic shipments of 18.459 million tons.
From a month earlier, total cargo handled by local seaports contracted 10.3% month-on-month, the ministry added.
The ministry said containers handled by South Korean ports stood at 2.01 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last month, up 1.6% from 1.98 million TEUs in February 2015.
Export-import container traffic edged up 2.9% year-on-year to 1.11 million TEUs last month.
South Korea’s outbound shipments fell 12.2% year-on-year in February, marking the longest ever consecutive negative growth of 14 months, as low oil prices and the cooldown in China weighed heavily on Asia’s fourth largest economy.
But the February decline narrowed from January’s 18.8%, the largest year-on-year fall since August 2009, on the back of a rebound in shipments of computers, wireless devices and machinery.
By port, container cargo processed at the country’s largest seaport of Busan, 453 kilometers southeast of Seoul, rose 1.8% year-on-year to 1.56 million TEUs, while runner-up Incheon saw the number fall 3.4% year-on-year to 166,000 TEUs.
Busan, meanwhile, rose to become the world’s fifth busiest container port in freight handled in February, beating the former No. 5 Hong Kong.
Photo: (WT-en) Jpatokal
