S. Korea's seaport cargo edges down 0.5 pct in May

SEJONG, June 26 (Yonhap) -- Cargo processed at South Korean seaports edged down last month from a year earlier due to a drop in non-container shipments, government data showed Monday.

Cargo handled at the country's ports came to 128.77 million tons in May, down 0.5 percent from 129.62 million tons tallied a year earlier, according to the data by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

Non-container cargo fell 3.3 percent on-year to 89.5 million tons last month, while container freight jumped 8.5 percent to 2.36 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

A total of 1.4 million TEUs of export-import cargo was processed over the same period, up 8 percent from the previous year's 1.29 million TEUs.

Trade shipments have been on a steady rise as Asia's fourth-largest economy has seen its exports gain ground since November on the back of recovering world trade and rising oil prices.

Busan was South Korea's biggest maritime gateway, with cargo handling reaching 32.59 million tons in May, followed by the southwestern port of Gwangyang with 23.11 million tons and Ulsan with 17.47 million tons, the latest data showed.

brk@yna.co.kr
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