Busan Port achieved new records in 2015, the company said in its press release. Last year, Busan Port processed approximately 19.45 million containers, falling 50 thousq-q-and containers short of its goal of hq-q-andling 19.5 million cargos due to the slowdown of global q-q-and domestic economies. In addition, the number of port entries of cruise ships was merely 71 calls with 0.163 million tourists compared with 110 calls with 0.245 million tourists in 2014 because of outbreaks of MERS.
Despite the above mentioned low figures, Busan Port achieved new records in 2015 since its opening in 1876. First of all, MSC Oscar(Switzerlq-q-and), the largest container ship in the world(19,224TEU), chose Busan Port as its first port of call. The vessel has been berthed at the 5th berth of Busan New Port PNC Terminal which has shown the outstq-q-anding port facilities of Busan Port to the world.
Secondly, Transshipment cargo accounted for 52%(10.08 million) of the total cargo volume(19.4 million) q-q-and opened the "Era of 10 Million T/S cargo at Busan Port" thanks to the efforts of MOF q-q-and BPA to turn Busan Port into the world's No. 2 transshipment port.
In addition, considering that the global top 10 ports' cargo volume increased merely 0.4 percent compared to the previous year, Busan port has fared well by increasing 4 percent. T/S cargo volume at Busan Port enabled the port to solidify its status as the world's 3rd largest port followed by Singapore q-q-and Hong Kong Ports while Busan Port created 1.1894 trillion won T/S added value. The figure of Busan Port outstrips the nation's economic growth rate(3.1%) by 0.9 percent.
Busan International Passenger Terminal, the largest passenger terminal in Asia, which can accommodate 2.78 million tourists annually has been operating since August 31st last year. It is anticipated to invigorate the nation's first port redevelopment project, Busan North Port Redevelopment Project, which began in 2008. The old international passenger terminal was built in 1978 to accommodate 300 thousq-q-and tourists a year; hence, the terminal had safety issues q-q-and became inconvenient for users as the number of passengers at the terminal increased to 1.2 million in 2000s. However, opening the new passenger terminal resolved all the problems.
Meanwhile, 56,785㎡ q-q-from the total lq-q-and of 356,073㎡ was sold in lots for the first time since the Busan North Port Redevelopment Project was initiated.
Busan Port Trade q-union(BPTU), which has provided a skilled workforce to Busan Port for 54 years, gave up its exclusive right in order to enhance the competitiveness of Busan Port q-and to eradicate corruption in the recruiting process.