A South Korean shipping line expects to begin weekly container service in January at the Port of Portland, where weekly service stopped in 2015 amid a labor dispute. (Mark Graves / The Oregonian)

A South Korean shipping line plans to start serving the Port of Portland in January, marking a resumption of weekly container service at the port for the first time in nearly five years.

SM Line’s vessels will serve two other Northwest ports as well, connecting them to ports in China and South Korea.

“This is great news for Oregon, which will create more jobs for Oregonians and more opportunities for local companies to grow as they market Oregon products overseas,” Gov. Kate Brown said in a written statement. She recently returned from a trade mission to South Korea.

Hanjin Shipping served Portland’s Terminal 6 until 2015, when a dispute between port operator ICTSI and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union derailed the relationship. Port managers said longshoremen deliberately slowed work at Terminal 6.

The union disputed that accusation, but a federal jury awarded ICTSI $93.6 million this month in a civil suit the port operator brought against the longshoremen. That judgment is on hold while a federal judge considers whether to reduce the jury award.

Hanjin had been shipping 1,600 containers weekly, transporting apparel for Nike, Columbia Sportswear and others and sending Northwest agricultural products to Asia. After the container shipping stopped, exporters had to send their products by rail to ports in Seattle or Tacoma.

Limited container shipping resumed in 2017, when a company called Swire Shipping began stopping in Portland every 35 days to load Western Star trucks Daimler manufacturers in Portland and an assortment of other containerized cargo for export. Swire was handling just 100 to 200 containers a month.

The port did not respond Tuesday to questions about the status of labor relations at Terminal 6, whether SM Line will receive any financial support for its Portland calls, and how many containers the new service will handle.