Hyundai Merchant cargo processing hits record at Busan port

Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., the country's top shipping firm, said Tuesday that its cargo processing at Busan Port, the largest sea gateway in the country, jumped 93 percent in July from a year earlier, hitting a record high.

Hyundai Merchant processed 167,018 twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo through the port, 453 kilometers southeast of Seoul, last month, the second-largest volume after Maersk.

The total includes 81,300 TEUs of imports and exports, an increase of 64 percent on-year, and 85,717 TEUs of transit cargo, up 133 percent, according to Hyundai Merchant.

In the first seven months of the year, the shipper handled a total of 1.01 million TEUs, nearing last year's 1.16 million TEUs in total.

Should the current pace be maintained, its cargo processing at Busan port will amount to 1.8 million TEUs this year, it forecast.

The company attributed the performance to its global shipping alliance with Maersk and the Mediterranean Shipping Company, which was reached in December last year. The similar consortium formed in March, with local rivals Sinokor Marchang Marine Co. and Heung-A Shipping Co. also helped, it said.

Hyundai Merchant, once threatened by financial troubles last year, had reached a deal with its creditors on a self-restructuring plan that included debt-for-equity swaps. (Yonhap)