<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published April 10, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Busan port sees upturn on the cards
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</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>(SEOUL) South Korea's Busan port, the world's fifth- busiest, took a hit from the worst global downturn in decades but now sees first signs that the slump may be approaching the bottom, an executive said yesterday.
The port, which handles 60 per cent of the containerised cargo entering or leaving the country, suffered a 20 per cent drop in the number of containers it moved around its port terminals in the first three months of 2009 from a year earlier.
But the performance in March and recent comments from officials at shipping companies suggest the slump in shipments was levelling off, said Choo Yeon Gil, vice-president of Busan Port Authority.
'We judge that (the pace of annual decline) has stalled by now and that we are passing through the trough,' Mr Choo told Reuters in a telephone interview from his office in Busan, around 400 km south- east of the capital Seoul.
'We have no figures for this month, but shipping industry officials are also saying the number of empty containers is decreasing as well,' he said.
The comments come after South Korea's central bank said earlier yesterday that it saw signs of the economic downturn levelling off after it held interest rates steady at a record-low 2 per cent for a second straight month. -- Reuters
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</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Busan port sees upturn on the cards
<TABLE class=storyLinks cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>
</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>
</TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>
</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>(SEOUL) South Korea's Busan port, the world's fifth- busiest, took a hit from the worst global downturn in decades but now sees first signs that the slump may be approaching the bottom, an executive said yesterday.The port, which handles 60 per cent of the containerised cargo entering or leaving the country, suffered a 20 per cent drop in the number of containers it moved around its port terminals in the first three months of 2009 from a year earlier.
But the performance in March and recent comments from officials at shipping companies suggest the slump in shipments was levelling off, said Choo Yeon Gil, vice-president of Busan Port Authority.
'We judge that (the pace of annual decline) has stalled by now and that we are passing through the trough,' Mr Choo told Reuters in a telephone interview from his office in Busan, around 400 km south- east of the capital Seoul.
'We have no figures for this month, but shipping industry officials are also saying the number of empty containers is decreasing as well,' he said.
The comments come after South Korea's central bank said earlier yesterday that it saw signs of the economic downturn levelling off after it held interest rates steady at a record-low 2 per cent for a second straight month. -- Reuters
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