Volume of cargoes handled by the by the state-run Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) rose slightly higher from January to November, but passenger traffic continues to slide.

Latest data from the PPA showed that the total volume handled at its more than 100 ports nationwide increased by 6 percent to 162.24 million metric tons from 152.57 MMT for the same period in 2010.

The PPA’s ports in Surigao registered an increase of 31 percent in volume to 21.07 metric tons for the period from the previous year’s 16.04 MMT.

Manila North Harbor posted a 15 percent increase to 16.89 million metric tons; Batangas Port up by 7 percent to 18.54 MMT; and Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) up by 2 percent to 17.16 MMT.

PPA’s report, however, said that substantial cargo volume decline were seen in nine of its port districts, with Iligan incurring the biggest setback with a decline of 23 percent, followed by Manila South Harbor’s­—21 percent; Zamboanga at—17 percent, and Tacloban and Legazpi both at—10 percent.

Volume of domestic cargoes was up by 5 percent to 66.68 MMT while foreign cargoes increased by about 7 percent to 95.55 MMT.

Meanwhile, containerized cargoes, where most of the revenues of the PPA come from, increased by 12 percent to 4.55 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU), or an increase of 489,782 TEUs.

Domestic boxed containers increased by 21 percent to 1.76 million TEUs, while foreign containers improved by almost 7 percent to 2.78 million TEUs.

“[Manila] North Harbor continues to rank first in terms of volume of domestic containerized cargo handled with 701,241 TEUs. MICT led in the foreign sector with 1,490,519 TEUs followed by South Harbor with 792,499 TEUs,” the PPA said in its report.

MICT is operated by International Container Terminal Services Inc., while South Harbor is managed by Asian Terminals Inc. Both publicly-listed companies corner the bulk of container cargo volume in the country.

On the other hand, passenger traffic continued to slow down during the period and only reached 44.71 million passengers, down by almost 6 percent or 2.8 million from the previous year’s 47.51 million.

The PPA said that it recorded decline of passengers that used sea transportation in its 13 port management offices. It did not identify which of its ports suffered the most decrease.

Ports in Batangas continue to take the biggest share of passenger traffic with 5.3 million people used its terminals from January to November, accounting for 12 percent of the entire traffic.

Port of Calapan in Mindoro followed with 4.71 million passengers; Tagbilaran, 3.53 million; Legazpi, 3.41 million and Zamboanga, 3.38 million.