Incheon Port Inching Toward Status of Hub Port of Yellow Sea Sphere

IPA picks up speed in expanding infrastructure for realizing its vision

Executives and staff members of the Incheon Port Authority (IPA), which celebrates its fourth anniversary this year, have devoted themselves to realizing the vision of transforming Incheon Port into a hub port of transshipment in the Yellow Sea sphere.
Their efforts have begun to pay off as they have undergone tremendous changes since the inauguration of the IPA. Through customer-oriented global marketing activities, Incheon Port has seen container cargo volumes rising.
On the overseas front, Incheon Port has been designated as one of the official cargo-handling ports of the London Metal Exchange. The port has gained global recognition through active transshipping of sea and air cargo.
Diverse marketing activities have led to an increase in cargo volumes, the opening of new container shipping routes and global shipping companies’ making new calls to the port.
IPA is now accelerating its bid to transform Incheon Port, as it is now working on such new long-sought-after projects as the construction of New Incheon Port and a new international passenger terminal. The development of the North Port backwater complex and the 2nd Aham Logistics Complex is now under way.
CEO Kim Jong-tae is spearheading the IPA’s efforts to develop the port into a hub port in the Yellow Sea sphere.
Tasks that CEO Kim has devoted himself to include the building of IT-oriented port systems and the construction of new-concept backwater logistics complexes including value-added clusters.
Some of the strengths of Incheon Port include: the biggest port in close proximity to the Seoul metropolitan area; easy connection to the capital; sea and air connection infrastructure; construction of IT infrastructure; and ease to secure the gifted manpower of the capital area. The port is a gateway to the Seoul metropolitan area, which accounts for 51.8 percent of Korea’s total population as of 2007 and 47.7 percent of the nation’s GDP as of 2006. The port has huge potential with increasing cargo traffic in Asia coupled with China’s rapid growth and its proximity to North China on top of location advantages in handling continental cargo traffic when trade between South and North Korea increases.
Figures released by the IPA showed that the port saw its cargo handling volumes increase from 108.227 million tons in 1999 to 123.453 million tons in 2005 and 141.815 million tons in 2008. The 2008 figure breaks down to 81.371 million tons of imports, 17.179 million tons of exports, and 43.265 million tons of nearby coastal cargo. The port handled 17.693 million TEUs of container cargo imports and 9.523 million TEUs of container cargo exports. Northeast Asia topped the list of regional container cargo trading partners with 1.288 million TEUs, followed by 221,504 TEUs for Southeast Asia, 45,753 TEUs for Japan, and 36,705 TEU for North America.
Currently, South Port has six container berths with a maximum capacity of 4,000 TEU-class ships. The container port will be expanded into one with a total of seven berths and a 3.6 million sq. meter port logistics complex by 2011.
North Port, an industrial port responsible for handling raw lumber, iron scrap, livestock feed and other industrial raw materials, will be widened to one with a total of 17 berths by 2010 at a cost of 918.5 billion won.
The New Incheon Port project calls for the construction of six container berths, including one capable of accommodating a maximum of 10,000 TEU-class ships as well as three ordinary berths at the site of New Songdo International City. Given the container berth of Incheon Port has the capacity to accommodate 4,000 TEU-class ships, the immense size of the projected new port would serve as an opportunity to explore long-haul shipping routes in the United States and Europe on top of ones in Southeast Asian countries by 2012. The projected New Incheon Port will be expanded into a comprehensive cargo port with a total of 30 berths with an annual capacity of 17 million tons and a 6.16 million square meter backwater logistics area by 2020. nw

IPA CEO Kim Jong-tae