Busan Shipping Routes — Container Terminals, Transit Times & Tracked Container Lanes

Q: What is the typical transshipment dwell at the Port of Busan?

About 7.0 days typical (with most containers between 4 and 11 days).

Q: How does Busan's transshipment dwell compare to Shanghai's?

Very close. 7.0 days at Busan vs 7.8 days at Shanghai.

Q: How connected is Busan compared to Shanghai?

Shanghai is more connected. Busan: 149 long-haul destinations on 71,757 tracked observations. Shanghai: 183 on 123,797.

Q: Which carriers move the most containers through Busan?

Busan top carriers: MSC (168,573), Maersk (71,837), and COSCO (918). Shanghai top carriers: MSC (147,509), Maersk (118,632), and COSCO (14,061).

Q: What are typical transit times from Busan?

Door-to-door transit times for selected long-haul lanes from Busan: Busan to Los Angeles about 28 days door-to-door; Busan to New York about 39 days door-to-door; Busan to Vancouver about 26 days door-to-door; Busan to Houston about 38 days door-to-door; Busan to Lazaro Cardenas about 28 days door-to-door; Busan to Manzanillo about 29 days door-to-door; Busan to Callao about 34 days door-to-door; Busan to Cartagena about 33 days door-to-door.

We track container shipments through Busan's 8 named terminals across 149 trans-oceanic shipping lanes. Below, the verified data: terminal locations, median transit times, an interactive map of every long-haul route from Busan, and a side-by-side comparison with Shanghai on transshipment dwell and connectivity.

Container Terminals

Tracked Berths

149

Trans-Oceanic Routes

71,757

Tracked Containers

Container Terminals at the Port of Busan

8 container terminals make up the Port of Busan in our records. For each terminal we publish only what we can verify directly from observed vessel calls: the largest draft and longest LOA we have recorded, the terminal's central coordinates, and the spatial distribution of tracked vessel positions on the map. We do not publish berth-level counts, since individual berths within a terminal cannot always be unambiguously separated from spatial Container Tracking data.

Trans-Oceanic Routes from Busan

Below are the long-haul shipping lanes (median transit ≥ 10 days) we have tracked from Busan. Regional intra-Asia feeders are excluded. Each card shows the median container shipping transit time, the 25th–75th percentile range, and the number of tracked containers. Click any card to open the full Busan → destination lane on our route explorer.

Busan's Global Reach — Interactive Route Map

Every long-haul lane from Busan on a single map, drawn along its actual sea route. Line thickness reflects how many routes share that lane. Click any destination port for transit-time stats and a link to its port profile. Use the Simulate disruption controls to close the Suez or Panama canals and watch the network re-route in real time.

Simulate disruption

Default routing — all canals open

Busan (origin) Destination port No-sail zone Lane traffic few → many routes

Transshipment dwell — Busan vs Shanghai

How long does a transshipping container actually sit at each port, between the inbound and outbound vessels? Below: median dwell at Busan and at Shanghai, plus the typical range each, from our tracked-shipment data.

Connectivity — Busan vs Shanghai

How many distinct long-haul destinations does each port reach as the vessel-leg origin in our tracked data? The chart below counts destinations with a median sailing of at least 10 days and at least 5 tracked container records, plus the total tracked container observations on those lanes.

In our tracked-shipment data, the carriers moving the most containers through Busan are MSC (168,573), Maersk (71,837), and COSCO (918). At Shanghai, the top carriers are MSC (147,509), Maersk (118,632), and COSCO (14,061).

Frequently asked: Busan container shipping

Quick answers to the questions maritime operators search for, with figures pulled directly from our tracked-shipment data and the simulator above.

What is the typical transshipment dwell at the Port of Busan?

About 7.0 days. Half of all transshipped containers in our data spend between 4 and 11 days at the Port of Busan — the time between being unloaded from the inbound vessel and reloaded onto the outbound vessel.

How does Busan's transshipment dwell compare to Shanghai's?

The two ports come out very close. Busan: 7.0 days (most containers between 4 and 11 days, 98,123 tracked records). Shanghai: 7.8 days (most between 4 and 13 days, 63,573 tracked records). Containers move through both ports in essentially the same time.

How connected is Busan compared to Shanghai?

Shanghai reaches more long-haul destinations in our tracked data. Busan: 149 long-haul destinations (median sailing ≥ 10 days, ≥ 5 tracked container records per lane), on a base of 71,757 container observations. Shanghai: 183 long-haul destinations on 123,797 container observations. Shanghai serves 34 more long-haul lanes than Busan in our sample.

Which carriers move the most containers through Busan?

In our tracked-shipment data, the top carriers at Busan are MSC (168,573), Maersk (71,837), and COSCO (918). For comparison, the top carriers at Shanghai are MSC (147,509), Maersk (118,632), and COSCO (14,061).

What are typical transit times from Busan?

Door-to-door times for selected long-haul lanes (gate-in dwell at Busan + vessel sailing + gate-out dwell at the destination port). Click any destination to open that lane on the route explorer — the same numbers will appear there:

Busan → Los Angeles — about 28 days door-to-door
Busan → New York — about 39 days door-to-door
Busan → Vancouver — about 26 days door-to-door
Busan → Houston — about 38 days door-to-door
Busan → Lazaro Cardenas — about 28 days door-to-door
Busan → Manzanillo — about 29 days door-to-door
Busan → Callao — about 34 days door-to-door
Busan → Cartagena — about 33 days door-to-door

For other lanes, click any destination on the map above or browse the route cards in the previous section.

Last updated 30 October 2026 — numbers, charts and FAQ figures are regenerated automatically every time our shipment-tracking pipeline ingests fresh carrier data.