Busan (Korea)

Busan (aka Pusan) is South Korea's largest seaport and by population (around 3,6 million) it is ranked Korea's second-largest city - after Seoul. Currently, South Korea has 4 cruise ports with all 5 international passenger terminals - Busan, Sokcho, Incheon and Jeju.

The name Busan (meaning "Cauldron Mountain") refers to a ring of peaks, rising to more than 2500 ft (760 m) behind the city. During Yi dynasty, Busan played key role not only in trade with Japan, but in repelling its invasions. Admiral Yi-Sun-Shin defeated Japanese armada with his "turtle ships" in 1592. Trade with the outside world began in 1876, when Yi Dynasty was forced to abandon its isolationist policy and signed a treaty imposed by Japan. Busan served as country's temporary capital during the Korean War.

The metropolitan area is mainly industrial and commercial, but the city is also known for its parks, recreational resorts and ancient temples tucked away in the forested hills. Cruisers exploring the city can visit Pomosa Temple, United Nations Cemetery, or the open-air fish market. To visit the famous Kyongju, you'll need a day-long shore excursion.

Port Busan

Pusan Port (aka Busan Harbor/locode KRPUS) is South Korea's largest cargo port by annual shipping volumes.

In 2011, the number of cruise tourists visiting Busan was around 50,000 (6 ship calls). In 2012, the number jumped to ~113,000, and in 2014 it doubled again - to ~245,000. In 2015, the Port handled ~163,000 tourists, the drop being caused by South Korea's MERS outbreak (May-July 2015),

In 2016, the cruise port handled a total of 215 ship calls and 0,5+ million tourists (passengers+crew). In 2016, South Korea was visited by around 2 million cruise ship tourists -(+130% over 2015). The country was included in a total of 811 cruise itineraries, of which 534 to Jeju, 215 to Busan and 62 to Incheon-Seoul.

Due to the global health crisis/COVID pandemic, Port Busan paused its cruise shipping operations for ~2 years (February 2020-2022).

Official statistical data (reported by Korea's Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries) for 2016 showed that a foreign cruise passenger spends on average nearly USD 890 (on tours / excursions, shopping, food, drinks, services). The increasing cruise shipping traffic is mainly due larger-sized vessels (with capacity over 4000 passengers each) homeported in China. In 2016, in Busan docked the port's ever largest vessels - RCI's Quantum-class ships Ovation of the Seas and Quantum of the Seas, each with gross tonnage 168,666 GT.

To better accommodate ship tourists, Port Busan made various improvements to its cruise terminal facilities and also to port regulations. Among those was increasing the max vessel height (restricted by Busan Harbor Bridge) from 60 to 64 m (197 to 210 ft). This allows larger vessels to pass under the bridge and use the newly-built "Busan Port International Passenger Terminal" (see below, in the "terminal" section). Another improvement was the construction of an additional immigration center at the new cruise terminal to ease the passenger processing time.

In 2016-2017, International Cruise Terminal (Yeongdo) was renovated to accommodate the world's largest ships of the Oasis-class (gross tonnage up to 220,000).

In 2017, despite China's reaction to the THAAD system deployment in South Korea, the cruise port handled a total of 108 ship calls and ~170,000 passengers (mainly from Japan, Taiwan and Singapore).

For season 2017, the port had originally scheduled a total of 280 ship cals with estimated over 700,000 cruise tourists. However, after USA's THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-ballistic missile system was deployed in South Korea (in April 2017), China banned all Chinese ports based / homeported cruise vessels from visiting South Korean ports of call. This resulted in major itinerary changes made by all Asia-based major cruise line companies. Beside all voyages, also banned were all tours to South Korea leaving from China. For comparison, in 2016 the cruise port reported a record year with 209 ship calls and over 570,000 passengers.

For 2018, the cruise port handled 124 ship calls with around 270,000 passengers. On February 6, 2018, the port was visited by its ever largest container ship so far - the CMA-CGM Saint Exupery vessel (cargo capacity 20,656 TEUs / containers). The boxship was berthed at Busan New Port BNCT.

• The vessel has LOA length The ship was built in Subic Philippines, Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction shipyard and has a length 400 m / 1312 ft, width 59 m / 194 ft, GT tonnage 217,673 tons. It was deployed on the FAL route (Ningbo-Shanghai-Singapore-Algeciras-Rotterdam-Le Havre).
• The port's first large boxship (capacity over 20K TEUs) was Madrid MAERSK (20,568 TEUs) in April 2017.

In 2017, 80% of Port Busan's TEU cargo volume was from the world's 3 largest shipping alliances - 2M (Maersk + MSC), OCEAN (CMA·CGM + COSCO + OOCL + Evergreen) and THE alliance (Hapag-Loyd + Yang-Ming + ONE).

On January 30, 2019, HMM (Hyundai Merchant Marine) signed the sales contract for "PSA-Hyundai Pusan New Port (PHPNT) Pier 4". By this deal, Yuanta-HPNT (private equity fund established by HMM and PSA) acquired stakes of Waska Inc (50% owner of PHPNT). In Yuanta-HPNT, HMM owns 80% (PSA 20%). The total investment (KRW 221,2 billion / USD 198 million / EUR 173 million) which includes Yuanta-HPNT’s investment of KRW 177 billion. As result, HMM and PSA became co-owners of PHPNT (each with 50% equal stakes). With this acquisition, HMM secured berths for fleet's 23,000-TEU boxships (scheduled deliveries 2020-Q2).

On March 8, 2023, in Dubai was signed a contract between Pusan Newport Corporation (PNC) and the joint venture company Boxbay FZCO (DP World/SMS Group) after which started the design and engineering works for DP World Pusan Terminal's BOXBAY (high-bay storage) system.

• The joint venture Boxbay FZCO is a business partnership between DP World (2005-founded, Dubai UAE-based multinational logistics company and container port operator) and SMS Group GmbH (1871-founded, Dusseldorf Germany-based plant construction and mechanical engineering company).
• Pusan Terminal's BOXBAY storage is integrated with the existing ARMGs (Automated Rail Mounted Gantry cranes) and container trucks and developed as a retrofit on an existing storage area. The BOXBAY system allows direct access to each TEU at any time. It was estimated that BOXBAY would eliminate manually ~350,000 unproductive container moves at Port Pusan, thus improving the terminal's logistics and reducing the overall truck time by ~20%.
• The system is fully automated and solar-powered (by electricity generated by photovoltaic panels mounted on the BOXBAY's roof).

DP World owns 66% stake in PNC. In 2021, DP World Pusan Terminal handled 5,3 million TEUs.

Busan cruise terminal

Busan tours, shore excursions, hotels

City Tours and Shore Excursions

• Yongdusan Park (where the Busan Tower is located) park entrance is free, Busan Tower has entry fee
• Jagalchi Fish Market (outdoor market selling fresh seafood)
• PIFF Square (where is also held the annual film festival in Busan) - restaurants, shops, food markets
• Beomeosa Temple (via the metro), hiking tour to Geumjeongsanseong Fortress
• Haeundae beach
• Haedong Yonggung Temple
• Gyeongju (the ancient capital of Korea) has numerous museums and temples