Port congestion easing, say Customs and PPA

MANILA, Philippines — Congestion at the ports of Manila are easing and expected to continue to improve in the coming months after the problem resurfaced and hampered commerce since late last year, officials from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said.

Although not considered as grave as the port congestion debacle in 2014, the recent problem has hampered normal truck cycles and adversely impacted port efficiency levels.

PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago said the buildup at the terminals started before the Christmas season last year.

“Sometime in October and November, we experienced weather disturbances coming from the ports of origin in Northern Asia. Of course they can’t get out of their ports of origin and they arrived here at the same time so that resulted in the pile up. And what further caused trouble are really those cargoes that have been cleared but are not being pulled out by the consignees,” Santiago said.

Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines president Ho Ik Lee told The STAR last January that Korean investors, particularly those in the manufacturing sector, are complaining of the “terrible” congestion at the Manila ports and are thinking of packing up their bags and transferring their operations elsewhere.

“They said no raw materials. They are considering to move their factory to Vietnam. The problem is Manila port. Due to slow transaction, there’s no space for the discharge of the containers from the vessel,” Lee said.

Both the PPA and the BOC, however, assured that the problems are being addressed.

“I’m happy to report that currently our ports are very healthy considering that we were able to significantly improve yard utilization from as high as 100 percent to now a level of 60 percent, especially in the Port of Manila,” Customs commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero said.

As part of continuing efforts to address port congestion, overstaying containers in ports nationwide will soon be cleared, following the signing Friday of a manifesto of support for the efficient utilization of Philippine ports among top executives from the Department of Transportation (DOTr), PPA, BOC, and port management officials.

The manifesto of support aims to prevent the imbalance of inbound and outbound containers borne by the unscrupulous practice of using the ports for prolonged storage of their containers until the withdrawal of goods will yield to maximum profit.

Failure to comply will lead to the transfer of containers to designated inland container depots by the terminal operators Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) and International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), at the expense of the concerned parties.

Additionally, cleared containers by the BOC that were not removed from the port within 30 days will also be transferred by ATI and ICTSI to their respective inland container depots.

International shipping lines are also required to promptly remove containers from the Philippines within the period prescribed by the BOC, either by their regular call vessels or by sweeper vessels.