CEBU-BASED Cokaliong Shipping Lines Inc. said it would acquire a new vessel this year to expand its domestic missionary routes in Visayas and Mindanao.

“We’re still trying to find the right ship that’s suitable for our route, but we’ll be buying a new vessel this year,” chief executive Chester C. Cokaliong told BusinessMirror.

The shipping executive said at the sidelines of the Entrepreneur of the Year awards last week that the company is looking at a ship with 3,000 gross tons and would cost a minimum of P200 million. He said the funds would come from internally generated sources.

The acquisition would bring to seven the current fleet of the 18-year-old shipping company.

Its domestic routes cover the areas of Dumaguete, Tagbilaran, Dapitan, Surigao, Maasin, Iloilo, Larena, Iligan, Sindangan, Palompon, and Cebu.

Cokaliong said he remains optimistic of the shipping business especially in the Visayas and Mindanao island routes despite the competition offered by low-cost airline carriers and rising fuel prices.

“We’re also catering to a different market. Likewise, we’re still focusing on the domestic so-called ‘missionary’ routes since primary routes already offer stiff competition among the ‘big boys,’” Cokaliong said.

He was also unable to say if the company plans to increase its rates this year. While a tariff cut on fuel imports would help, it would be better for shipping companies if the government imposed a moratorium on fuel-price hikes, Cokaliong said.

He added that the government’s plan to strengthen Roll-on, Roll-off (RoRo) routes would provide an elbow room against these fuel price-hike pressures.

The Philippine government plans to complete 49 RoRo routes, 20 of which are financially supported by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

According to the DBP, missionary routes “are composed mostly of horizontal connections that complement the existing vertical connections —the Central, Eastern and Western seaboards.”

Among the missionary routes targeted established last year was the San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, to Coron, Busuanga island route.

Navigating against these cost and price pressures “would really depend per company on how they would manage expenditures and grab the opportunities being presented,” Cokaliong said.

Harder approval for cuts in port-usage fees

EXPORTERS may find it more difficult to convince the government to extend wharfage discounts for goods sold abroad after a port body was ordered to course such requests to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) has credited a Japanese aid agency for giving it the capacity to undertake postentry audits of all goods that pass through Philippine ports.

CEBU-BASED Cokaliong Shipping Lines Inc. said it would acquire a new vessel this year to expand its domestic missionary routes in Visayas and Mindanao.

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