UPA chief eyes incentives for cargo owners as Arctic route puts Ulsan port in spotlight

Byeon Jae-young, president of the Ulsan Port Authority (UPA), said Friday that the port is considering extending incentives to cargo owners as well as shipping lines that use Ulsan port.

Speaking at a press briefing at UPA's headquarters in Nam-gu, Ulsan, Byeon made the remarks in response to questions about next year's business plans. "For bulk carriers hauling iron ore and coal, the cargo owner is the key player," he said.

UPA currently offers incentives to shipping lines using Ulsan port, including reductions on port facility usage fees. The authority is looking to broaden the scope of those incentives to attract more vessel calls.

The vessels UPA is particularly focused on are those using Arctic shipping routes. The Arctic route connects Asia, Europe and North America through the Arctic Ocean and consists of the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage. Compared with the Suez Canal, the route is shorter, cutting fuel costs, and it allows ships to avoid geopolitical risks such as Middle East conflicts.

"A great number of energy vessels pass through the Northeast Passage," Byeon said, expressing confidence that "if the Northeast Passage becomes more active, Ulsan port — which handles the fourth-largest volume of liquid cargo in the world — will draw significant attention." Ulsan port's liquid cargo volume last year reached 197 million tons.

A total of 22 vessels have called at Ulsan port via the Arctic route from 2016 through this year. Four vessels stopped at the port this year, a record high. The four ships unloaded other minerals and pulp, two calls each, and three of them took on 1,500 tons of bunker fuel.

Kwak Nam-hun, a senior official at UPA's eco-friendly energy division, told reporters at the briefing that Ulsan port's performance was "well worth noting," given that the Northwest Passage recorded only 56 commercial voyages last year.

To attract more Arctic-route vessels, UPA has been deepening cooperation with overseas shipping companies. As part of that effort, it signed a three-way MOU in August with Dutch shipping company Royal Wagenborg and the Korea Ocean Business Corporation to promote Arctic route development. Royal Wagenborg recorded 48 commercial cargo runs through the Northwest Passage last year, the most in the world.

On the possibility of cooperation with Busan port, Kwak said, "Our competitors are Shanghai and Singapore, so we need to work together with Busan port, which has strengths in container shipping."

This article was produced with support from the Bada-ui Pum Foundation and the Korean Marine Journalists Association.