With the first three container berths of a total of 30, Busan New Port opened with a gala ceremony on Thursday. The port is to become a driving force in making Korea a logistics hub in Northeast Asia. The old port opened 130 years ago has 21 container berths.

Construction of the Busan New Port started in 1997 and will be completed in stages by 2011, with a total investment of W9.15 trillion (US$9.15 billion).

The government hopes it will evolve into a comprehensive logistics hub, with surrounding space of some 3 million sq.m where cargo can be stored, packaged and processed, and a multi-level transport grid of roads, railroad and air routes as well as cutting-edge cargo-handling facilities. The three new berths are equipped with the most advanced cargo-handling and operating systems including nine container derricks capable of dealing with as many as 12,000 containers per cargo load, explosives detectors and pocket computer systems capable of handling cargo without paperwork.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Oh Geo-don said the Busan New Port will become the starting point of a so-called Iron Silk Road connecting the Pacific Rim and Eurasia, its complex logistics system connected with the Trans-Siberian Railway and Trans-China Railway. However, since the port opened a year earlier than scheduled to compete with its rival, the Yangshan Port of Shanghai, it has so far failed to secure sufficient ships calling there regularly, leaving the berths inevitably idle for some of the time.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

-from the English Online version of the Chosun Ilbo