WASHINGTON: Incheon Port Authority launched a single window communication service to reduce congestion and emissions in the vicinity of the port and to increase productivity and supply chain efficiency.
Accessible on mobile devices, the Incheon Port Container Terminal Single Window provides real-time stevedoring status and optimal in and out times for truck drivers as well as real-time traffic and yard congestion information. Vessel berthing schedules, container yard location and notices from terminals are included and there is a test function that allows drivers to change estimated time of arrival on the fly.
The service, which went live in the middle of the month, covers operations at Sunkwang New Container Terminal at Incheon New Port and E1 Container Terminal and Incheon Container Terminal at South Port.
“Single Window will be a representative example of Incheon Port to realize ‘Government 3.0’ by applying IT technology to port operation and improving service through communication and cooperation with business partners,” said IPA President Yoo Chang Kuen.
Incheon currently handles around 10 percent of South Korea’s total containerized cargo. It expects to grow its container business by 4 to 5 percent this year to around 2.47 million 20-foot-equivalent units. The port expects the transshipment business to grow strongest and expand by nearly 20 percent.
Incheon suffered from congestion issues in the past that saw it lose shipments to Busan, but is undertaking a series of projects to eliminate the problems. Incheon Newport Terminal A, which covers a total area of around 1.5 million square feet, has a quay length of 2,624 feet, and an alongside depth of 46 feet is due to open on March 1. The opening of Terminal B in 2014 allowed the port to service vessels in the 10,000-TEU range for the first time.
“Before the expansion, we only handled cargo trade with North China and Southeast Asian countries. The average vessel size was 2,000 or 3,000 TEUs. The effect of cascading means that now even regional services deploy 4,500-TEU ships. With the expansion, we can bring in different kinds of business (to Incheon) and service markets further afield,” said Yoo.
Plans are in place to deepen the harbor further to 52.5 feet within the next two years, which will allow the port to handle ships up to 13,000 TEUs. Meanwhile, after hitting an all-time cargo throughput high of 1.4 billion tons last year, South Korean ports saw a slight drop in year-over-year volumes in the first month of this year, mainly due to reduced gateway business.
The country’s ports handled a combined 124.7 million tons, 0.1 percent down on the previous year, according to data from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. Of the total, more than 82 percent was gateway cargo, which contracted 3.1 percent year-on-year to 102,753 million tons.
Container throughput registered a slight fall to 2.12 million TEUs from 2.13 million the previous year. Gateway container cargo increased 1 percent to 1.21 million TEUs while transshipment cargo fell 2 percent to 876,000 TEUs. Busan, which accounts for more than 75 percent of South Korea’s container volumes, handled 1.6 million TEUs in January compared with 1.7 million in January of 2015.
