The nation’s state-run companies achieved higher scores than their foreign counterparts in a recent global competitiveness evaluation, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Friday.

A private team, led by Choi Jong-won, professor at Seoul National University, conducted the nation’s first evaluation on the productivity and efficiency of 16 state-run firms in 27 categories.

According to the results based on last year’s performance, Korea Electric Power Corp. recorded a power transmission efficiency rate of 96.3 percent, higher than the average of 93.5 percent in developed countries including Japan, the U.S. and Germany.

The power company’s capacity factor, a ratio of its actual output over time to its full potential, was 77.4 percent, exceeding the global average at 64.5 percent.

When the efficiency and capacity rates increase 1 percent each, the company can raise an additional 384 billion won ($326 million) in profits while reducing 226.4 billion won in new investment.

The company’s failure rate of power supply at 0.52 percent was just one tenth of the 4.88 percent in North America.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., the state-run nuclear power plant operator, reported a 0.41 percent of power loss rate, far below the 4.79 percent average of 12 other countries that operate more than 10 nuclear power plants.

The price of liquefied natural gas was $670.52 per ton last year, lower than $765.84 in Japan.

Incheon International Airport Corp. also showed better capital intensity with its return on assets standing at 9.68 percent, higher than the 6.47 percent of the world’s top five airports.

The Incheon airport last year logged 739.1 billion won in operating profits with its assets worth 7.6 trillion won.

Busan Port Authority saw its transshipment capacity increase from 6.27 million 20-foot-equivalent units in 2010 to 7.35 million last year.

The 17.1 percent growth far exceeded the 7.98 percent average growth of the world’s top five port operators.

The ministry said it plans to extend the evaluation into 35 organizations in 54 categories next year. 

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)