Celebration of First Anniversary
The New Incheon Port (NIP), which is closely located to the Seoul Metropolitan area, celebrates its first anniversary on June 1.
On June 1, 2015, Sun-kwang Container Terminal (SNCT), a container terminal operator (TOC), opened a new era for the NIP by opening the first half (410m) of its 800 m length of quay. It was followed by the opening of the second container terminal with a 420m pier, which was opened on March 18 this year by Hanjin Incheon Container Terminal (HJIT). Those openings of the two quays have brought the NIP on track within a year.
The NIP was built for specialization in accommodating container cargoes in a bid to keep up with the increase in trade with China and other Asian countries as well as the trend of favoring large-sized vessels. The new port also targeted new sea routes bounding for the North America and Europe. After nine years of construction, the NIP was born with most modern facilities, representing the port infrastructure of the Incheon port.
In particular, the NIP has achieved an overall improvement in its operation within a year. It showed not merely increases in the trade volume and service line, but also an enhanced environment for logistics in the surrounding area, which is another criterion for carriers and shippers to choose a port.
While major ports in South Korea and the world’s top 10 ports saw declines in trade volume by posting – 0.3 percent and -0.6 percent, respectively, Incheon port posted an 8.6 percent increase.
The items coming into Incheon port have been diversified. Since the end of last year, the government started to use Incheon port for shipment of stockpiled commodities and the list of items also has been expanded to include American fresh fruit and meat. In particular, the import of fresh foods and refrigerated items is expected to increase further when the Incheon Port Authority (IPA) completes the construction of the LNG-based cold storage cluster in the area neighboring the NIP in 2018.
In addition, three new routes have been opened additionally only in the NIP, including the non-stop route connecting Atlanta, LA and Incheon port which is operated by the CC1 fleet of G6 alliance, of which Hyundai Merchant Marine is a member. In particular, nine new container service routes also have been added and the service networks have become more robust within a year, as the NIP drove a competion between the two terminals to improve the services.
The environment for logistics business has also been improved. The IPA has improved services at Incheon port in a way to save the time and cost of carriers and shippers through cooperation with the quarantine and customs clearance organizations to enable a 24 hour’s quarantine service and a swift importing and exporting process as well as to give permission to establish bonded warehouses for small amount of freight in the vicinity of the terminal.
The IPA will open the SNCT’s remaining 390m-stretch of quay on January 1 next year, followed by HJIT’s 2nd quay stretching 380m in November. Accordingly, the IPA plans to continuously provide supports for the pier operation and marketing helps to attract new sea routes in an effort to secure an early operational stability after launching the full operation of the INP.
Yoo Chang-keun, president of the IPA said, “The operation of the NIP could come to be on track within a year due to the geographical and economic merits of its having a huge hinder-land market of the Seoul metropolitan area in its vicinity,” explaining, “The NIP can provide a direct route connecting North America and Europe to the huge market of Seoul metropolitan area, helping carriers and shippers and shipping save costs for transportation.