Busan is the fifth largest port in the world, handling 75% of domestic exim traffic. But the port is set to loose cargo when the Gemini Cooperation between Maersk and Hapag Lloyd becomes active in February 2025, as the shipping alliance will omit Busan Port and Kaohsiung Port Taiwan as its major hub ports on the Asia-Europe route.
South Korean import and export businesses are bound to experience an increase in logistics cost as the alliance becomes active. Busan Port, recently fell to seventh place due to a dip in container traffic.
In the year 2017, bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping had a devastating impact on the South Korea’s shipping industry which has shrunk significantly. Previously the nation’s top shipping business is now on the seventh-largest position in the world.
The Korea Maritime Institute (KMI) reports that Singapore handles 114 containers per hour when ultra-large vessels (8000-TEU or larger) dock, compared to 88 in Busan and 77 in Yeosu-Gwangyang. One major problem is that South Korean ports, like Busan, are not significantly more productive or have a larger cargo volume than competitive ports in China and Singapore.
