[April. 4^th, 2017. Incheon, Korea]

Incheon Port made a leap forward to rank 57^th in the world by handling 2.68 million TEUs in 2016, the highest quantity of TEUs ever. The ranking has gone up by 10 notches from 67^th recorded in 2015.

Incheon Port Authority (www.icpa.or.kr, CEO Bong-hyeon Nam) announced that according to Top 100 Container Ports in 2016 announced by Alphaliner, a French liner shipping industry researcher, Incheon Port ranked 57^th among the top 100 containers in the world.

IPA said that Incheon Port showed a little bit of improvement by ranking 71^st by handling 2.33 million TEUs in 2014 and 67^th by handling 2.38 million TEUs, but there was no significant change in rankings. However, it made a success in entering the top 60 list by rising 10 notches in the global container port rankings in 2016. 

According to the global 100 container port rankings in 2016, the quantity of cargoes transported in Incheon Port was increased by 12.7% from a year ago to rank 2^nd in the growth of the quantity of cargoes transported among the top 60 ports in the world. Salalah Port in Oman ranked 1^st in the growth rate among the top 60 ports in the world by handling 3.3 million TEUs, up 29.4% from last year.  

IPA forecasts that Incheon Port will enter the top 40 list in terms of global container port rankings if it can handle 3 million TEUs as intended for this year.

An official with IPA said that Incheon Port was able to produce good results last year in spite of such adverse conditions as global economic recession, long-term depression in the shipping market and intensified competition in the port sector thanks to collaboration with related institutions and the private sector. He also said that continuous marketing focused on linking shippers to shipping companies based on analyses on logistical routes for high value added cold storage cargoes as livestock products and fruits and such large cargoes as crops, feeds and furniture seemed to have positive effects.   

IPA plans to put more emphases on increasing the quantity of goods transported by conducting continuous marketing to induce such new value added cargoes and large freights as liquor, foods, nonferrous metals, clothes and paper.