Park Jong-rok of Ulsan Port Authority (UPA) speaks at an international

conference marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of Ulsan Port on July 9,(Photos : UPA)

Fifty years have passed since the opening of Ulsan Port and now its aim is to become a Northeast Asian oil hub.

President Park Jong-rok of the Ulsan Port Authority (UPA) told an international conference marking the port’s 50th anniversary of the opening of Ulsan Port on July 9, “Ulsan Port’s being reborn as a Northeast Asian oil hub will be a new growth engine behind national economic development.” He went on to say that the Northeast Asian oil hub project aims at being among the global top four liquid logistics hub ports capable of serving transit trade and transaction beyond just a petrol storage center, and it is to secure a scarcity of petroleum resources and to create high value-added ones, a force behind new national development. 

Earlier, Park said in preparing the 50th anniversary event, “Ulsan Port’s 50-year history is like the realization of a miracle, and the miracle will continue for another 50 years during which the port is reborn as a Northeast Asian oil hub.”

The first phase of the Northeast Asian oil hub project calls for the construction of five piers with a combined area of 295,000 m2 in the North Port and a capacity for storing up to 9.9 million barrels by 2016. Under the second phase, four piers, including a buoy, with a combined area of 604,000 m2 and facilities capable of storing up to 18.5 million barrels will be built at the South Port by 2020. 

UPA President Park said, “We will run into challenges such as the timely expansion of port infrastructure, the easing of regulations on blending to facilitate spot transactions, and the expansion of financial support, and we’ll have to find solutions one by one.”

Participants of an international conference marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of Ulsan Port.

The UPA has been on a roll since December 2011 when President Park took the helm. Ulsan Port ranked 3rd following Busan and Gwangyang in terms of handing cargo volumes in 2012. The port handled 197 million tons of cargo, accounting for 15 percent of the nation’s total volumes. Of that total, Ulsan Port topped the list of handling liquid freight with 158.2 million tons for an 80 percent share.

The UPA became the winner of the Presidential Award during the 38th Korea National Quality Award Convention last year. In 2011, the authority was certified with a port environment standard ISO 14001. 

The UPA has been credited with making sustainable and innovative efforts, such as the establishment of a quality management regime designed to realize its goals of becoming a liquid logistics hub port since its inception in July 2007 as a public entity for the purpose of developing, managing, and operating Ulsan port facilities and promoting specialization and efficiency.

The UPA dedicated the Ulsan Port Marine Center, which accommodates the authority to offer services to the industrial community, in January 2012. The UPA chalked up profits for a sixth consecutive year last year. 

Park was presented with the 2013 Global Marine Businessman Grand Prize by the Korea Association of Maritime Business in recognition of his meritorious achievements. 

Park said, “Ulsan Port has renewed a record of handling cargo in 2011 and 2012 despite the global economic slump, and the UPA will devote itself to becoming a global liquid logistics hub leader on the occasion of the next 100th and 200th anniversaries.”