The latest global movement in marine transportation is a combination of super size, high speed and safe operation of a ship. The trend is for large-sized ‘con’ ships capable of transporting ten thousand TEU at once. Constructing a ship most rapidly with such a capacity and at the same time being able to reduce the number of accidents, is a matter of primary concern in the shipbuilding business.

Harbors are the same. To have such large ships come alongside the pier, water depth must be secured accordingly. And in order to manage massive amounts of material smoothly, an adequate rear distribution system is needed. After all these matters are solved, harbors then have competitive power.

Unfortunately, Busan harbor does not have a single pier for a ‘con’ ship in the 10 thousand TEU class due to the shallow depth. The Sinsundae pier of the Buk-Wue harbor is the only pier that secures the deepest water level at present, with a maximum depth of merely 15 meters. Depth necessary for a ship in the 10 thousand TEU class to come alongside the pier is 16m, which certainly means such a ship cannot come into Busan harbor. The only way to accept the large ships is to secure the necessary depth through dredging.

Next month, the Busan Port Authority (BPA) is launching a feasibility study for dredging operations to increase the depth at the third and fifth quays of the Sinsundae pier from 15 to 16 meters. The expense of dredging to secure the water level at three quays is estimated to be about 50 billion won, which indicates that one quay is around 15 billion won. The net profit from berthing a ship of the 10 thousand TEU class at a pier for a day is between 200 million and 300 million won. Thus, the cost of dredging can be more than paid within a year. The Busan harbor is one of the world’s five busiest harbors. It is absurd that such a harbor has insufficient depth for ships in the 10 thousand TEU class. This is not to mention that the investment should be allotted according to its fame.

입력시간: 2006. 10.25. 09:25