PPA reports steady cargo passenger growth

MANILA, Philippines - The state-run Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) reported a steady growth in the volume of cargo and passengers in the first two months of the year on the back of the country’s improving economy.

In a report, PPA general manager Juan Sta. Ana said cargo volume shipped in and out of the Philippines went up by 7.67 percent to 27.3 million metric tons in January and February this year compared to 25.36 million metric tons in the same period last year.

Sta. Ana pointed out that foreign cargo shipped in and out of the Philippines jumped 12.12 percent to 15.04 million metric tons from 13.41 million while domestic cargo that moved within the country inched up by 2.7 percent 12.26 million from 11.94 million metric tons.

He attributed the increase to the substantial rise in cargo volume handled in 19 port management offices (PMOs) with Iligan recording the highest increase with 103.25 percent particularly from the mineral ore shipments made by Semirara Corp. followed by San Fernando with 55.35 percent due to higher export of sand.

He said the increase in 19 PMOs were enough to wipeout the decline in five PMOs including the 36.4-percent drop in throughput in South Harbor followed by the 18.4-percent decline in Surigao, and the 7.21- percent decrease in Iloilo.

The PPA chief said the performance of South Harbor was affected by the significant decrease in the volume of domestic cargo handled at Pasig as well as the drop in the volume of imports at the baseport.

He also blamed the decline in the performance in Surigao to the decline in the exports of nickel at the private ports of Taganito and Hinatuan.

On the other hand, the PPA reported that Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) remained the country’s main international gateway as it accounted for 11.39 percent of the total cargo volume with 3.11 million metric tons.

In terms of containerized cargo, PPA said volume increased by 1.91 percent to 822,029 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first two months of the year from 806,662 in TEUs in the same period last year.

Likewise, Sta. Ana reported a 3.6-percent rise in the volume of passengers in the first two months of the year. The volume of domestic and foreign passengers in January and February reached 7.89 million or 272,882 more than the 7.62 million in the same period last year.

“The numbers still reflect the impact of competition posed by airlines offering budget fares,” he stressed.

The agency continued to note a continuing shift of domestic sea-based travelers to air transport amid the “fare war” among low cost carriers led by national flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) and sister firm PAL Express (formerly AirPhil Express), publicly-listed Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific), Philippines’ Air Asia Inc., Southeast Asian Airlines (Seair), Zest Airways, among others.

The Philippines booked a 6.6-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth last year exceeding the five-percent to six- percent target set by economic managers through the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).