Incheon port eyes 3m teu box throughput in 2018

The 2.68m teu figure will represent a 12% increase from last year’s volumes of 2.37m teu.

Incheon port’s throughput have been on a steady increase since reaching 1m teu in 2005 when the IPA was established.

The container volume growth for Incheon was attributed to Incheon New Port located at the southern end of Songdo International City which opened in 2015. The opening of the new port made it possible to expand cargo services such as provision of various route services and handling of fresh food cargoes.

The IPA said another reason for the volume growth was the extension of shipping service routes to the Americas and the Middle East, expanding from the Asian region.

In June, a Middle East route service was launched, adding six new routes to Incheon port. The port currently offers 45 routes, including three routes to the Americas, the Middle East and Africa.

China, the largest trading partner of Incheon port, also helped the increase in cargo volumes this year. The cargo volume trade with China stood at 1.5m teu from 1 January to 15 December this year, an increase of 10% year-on-year.

In the same period, the port handled a 25.2% increase in cargoes for trade with Vietnam compared to the previous year by handling 220,000 teu. Taiwan, the US and Iran also recorded 96,000 teu, 19,000 teu and 9,000 teu respectively.