State-run Incheon Port Authority, which operates South Korea's nearest port to China, expected to build a new container pier by 2013 to more than triple container cargo volumes, Suh Jung Ho, the port operator's chief executive officer, said in an interview.
South Korea's Incheon, Busan and Gwangyang ports are benefiting from a Chinese economy that the International Monetary Fund expects to be the biggest contributor to world growth this year.
Laptop and mobile-phone makers in north China ship products to Incheon, which is closer than Beijing or Shanghai, so they can be flown to the US, helping make Incheon South Korea's fastest growing terminal.
“The expanding Chinese economy will certainly offer Incheon Port momentum,'' said Choi Won Kyung, a sea transport analyst with Good Morning Shinhan Securities Co. “The planned terminal will help Incheon better compete with bigger rivals.''