SEJONG: Cargo processed at South Korean seaports shrank nearly 6 percent in August from a year earlier despite a slight gain in exports, government data showed Monday. The volume of cargo handled by the country’s seaports came to 114.5 million tons last month, down 5.8 percent from 121.5 million tons tallied in the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
In August, South Korea’s exports rebounded to gain 2.6 percent to $40.1 billion from a year ago, snapping a 19-consecutive-month losing streak that started in January 2015. Container cargo slipped 0.7 percent on-year last month to 2.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), while non-container cargo also retreated 8.7 percent to 78.6 million tons.
By port, the country’s largest one in Busan, located some 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, processed 1.6 million TEUs of cargo last month, down 2.9 percent from a year earlier. As of end-August, Busan remained the world’s fifth-largest seaport in cargo volume, with China’s Shanghai in the top spot, the ministry said.
