○ Incheon Port Authority (www.icpa.or.kr, President: Jun-wook Choi) announced on July 17 that the global shipping company MSC’s service, “PERTIWI”, started its operation at Incheon Port on July 15.

○ According to IPA, the PERTIWI service is the sixth container route established at Incheon Port this year. With its launch, the number of regular container services between Incheon and Southeast Asia now amounts to thirty-six.

○ PERTIWI is a service that departs the Incheon Port every week and stops at China and Vietnam before heading to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. To start its first sailing, MSC IDA II entered Incheon Container Terminal(ICT) at 11 A.M. on July 15.

○ With four 2,500 TEU-level ships deployed, it is expected to create a traffic volume of over 20,000 TEUs per year. The trade volume between Korean and Vietnam is expected to climb dramatically, since many Korean companies, such as POSCO, Hyosung, and KTCT Vietnam Logistics Center, which is the Vietnamese corporation of Korea Marine Transport, reside at the Vung Tau port area in Vietnam, a new ports of call.

○ The ports of call, in detail, are Incheon-Dalian, China-Xingang, China-Vung Tau, Vietnam-Laem Chabang, Thailand-Singapore-Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia-Jakarta, Indonesia-Panjang, Indonesia-Singapore-Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia-Busan-Qingdao, China-Incheon.

○ “This new additional Intra-Asian service will allow small and medium-sized enterprises to develop export markets and provide metropolitan shippers and forwarders with a wider variety of choices,” said Jong-gil Kim, Vice President of Operation Division at IPA. “We will continue devoting ourselves to stabilizing new sea routes.”

※Photograph dex-scription (attached separately)

= (Photograph) MSC IDA II, which has been deployed for the PERTIWI service, entered Incheon Container Terminal(ITC). / Provider = IPA