Evaluation of the Marine Traffic Congestion of North Harbor in Busan Port

In terms of container handling, the port of Busan was ranked the third busiest port in the world in year 2002. As an advantage, the increased cargo volumes can provide higher profits, but, at the same time, can also cause port congestion. Busan has also suffered from severe port congestion recently. To accommodate the increased number of vessels calling at the port, the Korean government has already started the construction of new container terminals within the harbor. However, apart from simple studies, no specific evaluation of the port traffic has been performed until now. With this in mind, this paper aims to analyze the effects of ship traffic conditions in the year 2011 and to evaluate the potential for marine traffic congestion using the well established simulation language—the AWE-SIM simulation program. The findings reveal that the urgent tasks to prevent possible congestion are the elimination of anchorage M, the reallocation of terminal functions in number two pier and enlarging of the superstructure of the container terminals.