컨테이너선 대형화에 따른 부산항의 대응 방안

Abstract

As the size of trade between countries increased, there are rapid changes in the logistics environment concerning ports. The world container handling volume in 2013 is 642 million TEUs, which grew by 80 percent compared to 360 million TEUs in 2004. It is forecasted to reach 840 million TEUs in 2018, which grew by over 2 times compared to the amount in 2004. Due to this, the marine transportation industry has made Mega-Carrier appear through mergers and acquisitions between shipping lines to expand market dominance, and they are continuing to make enormous investments for securing mega ships over 10,000 TEUs in order to strengthen the competitiveness in shipping cost. According to such changes in the shipping environment, large ports in the world are engaging in fierce competition for hub ports by continents in order to attract mega fleet, and this is leading to the trend of strengthening port competitiveness through the securing and operation of efficient port facilities. In other words, the world’s leading ports such as Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Busan, Rotterdam, and Hamburg are not only developing large-sized terminals but also investing highly productive handling equipment for the efficiency of port operation. By the requirements of shipbuilders and shipping companies, very large container ships are becoming a reality, and 20,000 to 30,000 TEUs or more ultra large vessels are also expected a few years after. In these situations, the world’s major ports are faced with important challenges. The provision of container terminal infrastructure has to be enhanced to reduce the time that vessels need to stay in port. It is imperative for container ports and individual terminals to be efficient in order to survive in today’s competitive environment. Busan Port has a very excellent accessibility to international intermodal transportation network but is facing a serious threat from the rapid growth of Chinese Ports. Now Busan Port needs the total counter-strategies considering infrastructure, equipment, and operation. The objective of this research is to propose the counter-strategies of Busan Port against growing container vessel size. In order to achieve the objective, we firstly summarize the effects of growing container vessel size on ports. The enlargement of vessels requires deeper water level, longer berth length, bigger container handling equipment, and higher handling productivity. Second, we analyze the calling situation of large container vessels at Busan Port by investigating the historical data of vessels which recently called at Busan Port, and also estimate the future status of Busan Port. Third, we also analyze the calling acceptability of large container vessels at Busan Port in the future based on the current calling conditions of Busan Port. Finally, we suggest the counter-strategies of Busan Port against the expansion of container vessel size based on the results of analyses: the improvement of berthing condition through keeping deeper water level of sea route and quay inside the ports, the rearrangement of berths according to longer vessel length, the specification acceptance of container handling equipment according to wider vessel width, and the innovative improvement of productivity against increasing the average handling amounts of vessels