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CARGO
volume handled at the ports owned by the Philippine
Ports Authority (PPA) posted an increase in the nine
month period ending September, propelled by the
increased movement in the country’s foreign trade.
Passenger traffic, on the other hand, also posted its
second month of increase in September, with the
“impressive” showing in ports of Batangas, Calapan in
Mindoro and Tagbilaran, the PPA said in a report
released last week.
The
state firm said some 1.08 million people used its ports
for September alone.
Latest
data from PPA showed that total cargo throughput for the
first nine months of the year ending September increased
by about 6 percent to 121.1 million metric tons (MT)
from the previous year’s 114.53 million metric tons.
The
government ports regulator said that the increase in
volume is attributed mainly to the 10-percent hike in
foreign cargo to 67.12 million MT from 60.82 million MT
last year.
The PPA
said that it recorded the highest increase from the
Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), the
ports of Cagayan de Oro, Batangas, Surigao and Manila
South Harbor.
Exports
increased by 26 percent to 27.4 million MT from last
year’s 21.75 million MT while imports posted more than 1
percent increase to 39.72 million MT from 39.07 million
MT.
Domestic-cargo volume, which has been limiting the
increase of the total for the past months, registered a
modest increase of 0.51 percent for the nine-month
period to 53.98 million MT from 53.7 million MT.
Containerized cargo, on the other hand, also increased
by more than 6 percent 2.912 million 20-foot equivalent
units (TEU) from the previous year’s from 2.74 million
TEUs.
Foreign-boxed cargo increased by 12 percent to 1.709
million TEUs from the previous year’s 1.530 million TEUs
PPA said the increase was mostly seen at the Manila
North Harbor, South Harbor, MICT, Cagayan de Oro and
Davao.
Domestic
containerized cargoes, however, were down by about
100,000 standard containers to 1.2 million TEUs as a
result of the preference of shippers to utilize the
Roll-on/Roll-off nautical highway of the government.
Cargoes
on the trucks using the said links of port are not being
documented by PPA.
Domestic
ship calls, on the other hand, increased to 225,610 from
220,675 last year, while foreign ship calls increased to
7,577 from 7,248 last year.
For
September alone, PPA said it had seen 52-percent surge
of foreign containerized cargoes in Cagayan de Oro port.
For the entire Northern Mindanao ports, however, posted
a decline of 24 percent. |
