Korea Strike News Update
Message from OOCL (Korea) Limited
More than 11,000 truck drivers went on strike last Friday (Jun 13) to protest rising fuel prices, paralyzing ports and terminals in Korea. It is estimated that the total traffic of gate-in/out at Pusan port/terminal was limited to only 7,540 units, about 24% of usual operation volume. In some terminals storage ratio has already surpassed 100%. For the Pusan East Container Terminal (PECT) used by GA/OOCL, our handling volume has drastically dropped to 1,294 units from the normal 5,379 boxes, which is almost utilized by transshipment cargoes within the terminals and is going to reach full capacity in the foreseeable future. Trucking for local IB/OB has almost been completely halted. Gate in / out at all terminals in Pusan are blocked. Conventional piers, which public feeders call berths, are also paralyzed. As a result, Pusan is now only handling at less than 25% throughput.
Over the weekend, we have successfully processed transshipment cargo among different terminals with the help of trucking vendors arranging for non-union truck drivers and police's escorting. We are now seeking ways to handle this week’s transshipment cargo through public feeders from PECT to other terminals. A delay is very possible.
The strike is believed to last over a week or even 10 days and we will keep updating latest development.
For more details, pls refer below news link :
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200806/200806160012.htmlhttp://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/06/117_25904.htmlhttp://www.koreaherald.co.kr/index.asphttp://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2891151
