[
THE INVESTOR] The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced on Aug. 29 it will spend 41.4 billion won (US$36.90 million) to expand the Busan North Port to accommodate larger international cruise ships by August 2018.
It will enlarge the cruise dock of the northern harbor of Busan, widening it to 45 meters from 30 meters and extend the length to 440 meters from 360 meters so that a 220,000 gross tonnage cruise ship can dock.
Busan Port currently has two exclusive docks for cruise ships and the Dongsam-dong dock can only accommodate up to an 80,000 gross tonnage ship. The other port in the redevelopment area can house one up to 100,000 gross tonnage.
The southern port city had 163,000 visitors from 71 cruise ships entering the port in 2015 and is expecting about 450,000 from 218 cruise ships.
By Hwang You-mee (
glamazon@heraldcorp.com)
