Busan Port May Hit by Shipping Alliance Reshuffle
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Friday, December 23, 2016
The upcoming reorganization of global shipping alliances is likely to hit Korea’s largest port in Busan and the harbor volume of Busan Port is expected to drop by 3.5 percent from next year, the Korea Herald reported quoting Korea Maritime Institute (KMI)’s report.
KMI announced on December 22 that as a result of the analysis of the port rotation adjustment plans formulated by the soon-to-be-established shipping alliances "Ocean" and "THE Alliance," the number of shipping services using the port of Busan is likely to decline by three compared to the current figures.
Busan Port managed containers of more than 10 million twenty-foot equivalent units last year. Of those, the Asia-North America route accounted for 36.7 percent while the Asia-Europe shipping line made up 6.7 percent. The Institute forecast that freight volume of 350,000 TEU would drop from these two lines.
According to the KMI's analysis, the member carriers of the two alliances including Ocean and THE Alliance would likely to reduce the number of their service routes using the port of Busan from 15 to 13 on the Asia-U.S. routes and from three to two on the Asia-Europe routes.
Starting from April next year, the 13 shipping companies under the three global shipping alliances -- G6, Oceans 3 and CKYHE -- will be reshuffled to nine shippers under two alliances through mergers and liquidation.
“The projection is only based on the three shipping alliances, excluding the 2M+H, which has not finalized their shipping line plan. (If including the 2M+H,) the harbor volume of Busan Port will further drop,” said the report.
The world’s largest container shipping alliance 2M agreed earlier this month to have a limited partnership with Hyundai Merchant Marine for three years as 2M+H.