Inched-up
The total volume of cargos handled via trade ports over the country reached 124.32 mil. tons in July, showing a 1.9% increase from a year ago, according to Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MoF) on August 5.
The MoF announced that among the last month’s total volume of transported cargos, export- import cargos and coastal cargos accounted for 102,890,000 tons and 21,430,000 tons respectively.
By item, chemical and petroleum products increased highest by 14%, machinery 12.4%, and oil 8.9%, respectively, compared to last year. On the other hand, the transportation volume of ore decreased by 19%, and that of iron and cement also decreased by 5.4% and 4.8% each.
The total volume of non-containerized cargos processed by trade ports over the country was 8,618 tons, up 0.4% from a year earlier. During the period, the volume of non-containerized cargos transported via Ulsan port and Daesan port increased by 6.5% each. In the case of Ulsan port, the cargo volume of oil and chemical and petroleum goods increased, influenced majorly by the decrease in international oil price. For Daesan port, the import-export volume of petrochemical products increased owing to the increased import volume of Iranian crude oil along with the decrease in international oil price.
Meanwhile, the cargo volume processed in the Pohang port decreased by 15.5%, which was caused by the slow exports of steel products and sharply decreased imported volume of ore. The volume transported via Pyeongtaek-Dangjin port also decreased by 4.5%, affected by the domestic decrease in the transported volume of steel products and ore.
In July, the total volume of containerized cargos processed by trade ports over the country reported 2.253 mil. TEUs, a 6.6% increase compared to the same period last year. By port, Busan Port switched to an upward trend by reporting the total volume of 1.697 mil. TEUs, up 5.4% on year-on-year. Gwangyang port handled a total of 191,000 TEUs, showing a 4.7% , and Incheon port reported 231,000 TEUs, a 16.5% increase owing to the increased trade volume with China, Vietnam, and etc.