S.Korea's seaport cargo volume falls in November

SEOUL, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's cargo volume at seaports fell in November as the handling of freight was delayed at major ports, a government report showed Wednesday.

The volume of cargo processed at local seaports stood at 128.48 million tons in November, down 1.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

The export-import freight flows also declined 1.9 percent over the year to 108.83 million tons last month.

The reduction was attributable to the delayed freight handling that offset the positive effect of the global economic recovery.

The volume of container cargo handled at domestic seaports came to 2,393,000 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) in November, down 7.4 percent from the same month of last year.

The container freight slide resulted from a fall in export-import cargo and the postponed handling of cargo heading to the Americas.

The container cargo processed for exports and imports shrank 5.4 percent from a year earlier to 1,346,000 TEUs in November.

South Korea's trade with the United States went down 14.9 percent in November on a yearly basis, with those with China and Japan skidding 2.9 percent and 4.9 percent each.

The container traffic volume for transshipment at local seaports retreated 9.9 percent to 1,032,000 TEUs last month.

Meanwhile, the non-container freight volume handled at seaports amounted to 85.22 million tons in November, up 0.8 percent from a year ago.