Cargo handled at South Korea's seaports rose 8.1 percent on-year to an all-time
high last year on strong trade and greater transshipment demand, the government
said Monday.
The amount of cargo processed at the country's seaports
came to 1.32 billion tons in 2011, compared with 1.24 billion won handled a year
earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime
Affairs.
The amount of container cargo handled at the seaports also
surged 11.3 percent from a year earlier to 21.55 million 20-foot-equivalent
units (TEUs).
South Korea is the world's fourth nation ever to have
processed over 20 million TEUs in a year. Its largest port in Busan became the
world's fifth seaport last year to have processed over 15 million
TEUs.
The ministry attributed the increase to a large boost in the
amount of transshipment cargo, or cargo passing through the country while en
route to its final destination.
"Export-import cargo and domestic
cargo rose 8.2 percent and 25 percent on-year, respectively, and also the amount
of transshipment cargo rose 16.2 percent on-year to 7.72 million TEUs,
continuing its double-digit growth for a second consecutive year," it said in a
press release.
The growth of export-import cargo significantly slowed
from a 19.1 percent gain in 2010 largely due to the global economic downturn,
the ministry added.
By port, the country's largest Busan port, 450
kilometers south of Seoul, processed 16.18 million TEUs in 2011, up 14 percent
from a year earlier.
The amount of cargo handled at the country's
second-largest port in Gwangyang, 420 kilometers south of Seoul, slipped 1.1
percent on-year to 2.06 million TEUs.
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