Maemi wreaked havoc across the South Korea, however, damage to the electronics hardware industry was limited to the Busan port. Nevertheless, having already experienced two massive union strikes, the combined affect of typhoon damage will lead to a long, bumpy road of recovery for Korea's largest container port.
As a relief measure, the government has diverted Busan's cargo to the Masan port on the east coast or the southwestern port of Gwangyang. Nevertheless, Busan's status as Korea's leading port would be hard to duplicate, in terms of software and hardware infrastructure, as well as the port's various advantages for incoming ships. The results would be catastrophic for the competitiveness of Korea's electronics industry if the cargo bottleneck were not timely resolved. Resolving the cargo bottleneck to meet demand for the peak Christmas holiday season presents a huge challenge for Korean industry.