Busan’s January throughput up 7%, tops 1 million TEUs

BusanÆs January throughput up 7%, tops 1 million TEUs The Port of Busan handled 1.04 million TEUs in January, a 6.8 percent increase over the 971,923 TEUs handled in the first month of 2006. It was also the first time the South Korean port exceeded the 1 million TEU mark in the month.
   Busan’s export cargo increased 14.6 percent in January to 277,865 while import cargo rose 9.6 percent to 301,586 TEUs. Transshipment cargo was up by 1.8 percent to 437,758 TEUs.
   The Busan Port Authority said that the scrapping late last year of the $20-per-TEU local cargo tax, introduced in 1992, was the “biggest factor of this increase.”
   The port authority added that foreign lines are utilizing the port more, exemplified by Maersk Line expanding the number of its services to Busan from five to nine in October.