Figure 7.1: Logo of Busan Port Source: Website of Busan Port O1 Geographical location
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Figure 7.2: Busan Port map Source: Website of Busan Port
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Busan Port is the largest in South Korea situated at the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula, at the mouth of the river Naktong near the Tsushima islands of Japan.
Surrounded by mountains and islands, Busan Port offers still water surface within the port and little difference between rise and fall of the tide. Located adjacent to one of the three international arterial routes as well, Busan Port is equipped with the natural advantage in terms of requirements as a port. Established in 1876 to facilitate maritime trade with Japan and China, the port has come a long way due to its strategic location and infrastructural development. Today, it is the 2nd busiest transshipment port in the world and the North- East Asia’s largest transshipment port with handling transshipment cargo volume of 12.27 TEU a year based on a network of approximately 500 major ports in 150 countries around the world.
O The Container Throughput
CONTAINER THROUGHPUT OF BUSAN PORT
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2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Figure 7.3: Container throughput of Busan Port Source: Website of Busan Port
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From the container throughput perspective, in 2021, around 22.7 million twenty- foot equivalent units of containers were handled at Busan port, a four percent increase from the previous year thanks to the increased import and export activity with China, Russia, and Vietnam. Of which, around 12.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units of containers were transshipped at Busan port. According to the data from Statista, this was an increase of around 2.1 percent from the previous year. However, in 2022, container cargo handled at the port came to 11.21 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) in the January-June period, down 2.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Busan Port Authority and the Korea Maritime Institute. The decline was blamed on a slowdown in global consumer spending, China's coronavirus lockdowns and the protracted war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the export-import cargo shrank 1.9 percent on-year to 5.23 million TEUs due to falling trade volume in most countries, excluding the United States. In spite of these factors, the Port of Busan is still ranked as the seventh largest container port worldwide in terms of cargo throughput.
O The Equipment and Facilities
As the foremost port in Korea, Busan Port processes 40% of total marine export cargoes and 81% of container cargoes in Korea as well as 42% of marine products domestically produced (PBA, http://www.pba.or.kr). Due to its location in the south of Korea, Busan is part of the shipping routes between Europe and East Asia, as well as the so-called Transpacific Route between Asia and the USA. The transshipment rate is very high at over 50 percent.
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Figure 7.4: Layout of Busan Port Source: Website of Busan Port
Currently, the Busan Port has four fully equipped modern ports — North Port, South Port, Gamcheon Port and Dadaepo Port — an international passenger terminal and six container terminals. The port is facilitated by 26.8km of quay wall, allowing it to berth 169 vessels simultaneously and handle cargo of 91 million tons per annum.
- Gamman container terminal is built over an area of 750,000m2 and is operated by four ship carriers — Global Enterprises, Hanjin Shipping, Korea Express and a foreign company, Hutchison Korea Terminal Ltd. The terminal is equipped with modern container-handling equipment. Quay wall length of the terminal is 1400m with berthing capacity for four 50,000t vessels. Annual handling capacity of the terminal is 1 ,280,000TEUs.
- Opened in June 1991, the Sinseondae container terminal is equipped with advanced loading / unloading equipment such as high speed container cranes capable of handling post-panamax container ships. The terminal is operated by
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Busan East Container Terminal Company Limited. Facilities include a quay length of 1,200m and berthing capacity of four 50,000t vessels. Annual handling capacity of the terminal is 1,280,000TEUs.
- Singamman container terminal was opened in April 2002 and is operated by Dongbu Pusan Container Terminal Company Limited (DPCT). Its quay length of 826m is capable of berthing two 50,000t vessels and one 5,000t vessel. Built over an area of 308,000m?, the terminal has annual handling capacity of 650,000TEUs.
- Operating since 1978, the Coastal Ferry Terminal has a quay length of 480.4m with alongside depths ranging from 6m to 8m. Operated by Dongbu Corporation Global Enterprise Limited, the Central Port has a quay length of 646m with alongside depth of 9m.