China, Japan, and South Korea have agreed to expand the Northeast Asia Logistics Information Service Network in light of risks highlighted by the recent Tianjin port explosion.
To the 13 ports already covered by the information-sharing agreement, the three countries agreed on 10-11 September to add six.
“Through this network, China, Japan, and South Korea can better manage and store dangerous cargoes, thus improving the competitiveness of our logistics industries,” said Park Byung-chul, director for marine logistics at South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
The accord will now extend to Ulsan and Pyeongtaek in South Korea, Shaoxing and Jiaxing in China, and Yokkaichi and Niigata in Japan.
Pyeongtaek, Ulsan, and Yokkaichi ports, in particular, handle plenty of oil and chemical cargoes as they are close to refineries.
The explosion at a chemical warehouse in Tianjin on 12 August 2015 killed more than 100 people. As much as 3,000 tonnes of chemicals were stored in Tianjin, including at least 700 tonnes of highly toxic sodium cyanide.
The agreement’s established 13 ports are South Korea’s Busan, Incheon, and Gwangyang, China’s Ningbo, Weihai, Wenzhou, Yantai, and Zhoushan, and Japan’s Kawasaki, Kobe, Osaka, Tokyo, and Yokohama.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
