Cargo processed at South Korean seaports rose 2.2 percent in the first nine months of 2015 from the same period last year as both import-export cargo and domestic cargo increased from a year before, the government said Wednesday.

In the January-September period, the volume of cargo handled at the country's seaports came to 1.07 billion tons, compared with 1.05 billion tons in the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

Import-export cargo gained 2.3 percent on-year to 902 million tons, and domestic cargo rose 1.9 percent to 175.23 million tons.

The increase was partly attributed to a rise in container cargo, which grew 3.9 percent on-year to 19.16 million twenty-foot-equivalent-units while non-container cargo increased 1.6 percent.

Import-export cargo accounted for more than half of all container cargo processed in the first nine months of the year, rising 1 percent on-year to about 10.96 million TEUs.

Transshipment cargo, or cargo processed here while en route to a final destination, surged 7.4 percent on-year to a little over 8 million TEUs over the cited period, the ministry said in a press release.

By port, the country's largest in Busan, located some 450 kilometers south of Seoul, processed 14.6 million TEUs in the January-September period, making it the world's sixth-largest seaport. (Yonhap)