Cargo volume handled by Philippine ports posted a 13% increase in the first two months of the year, anchored on the strong performance of the foreign cargo sector.
From January to end-February, total cargo throughput handled at ports supervised by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) reached 34.672 million metric tons (mmt), up from the 30.645 mmt posted in the same period last year, latest data from the PPA showed.
Domestic cargo throughput reached 15.793 mmt or a 7.73% improvement compared with the year-ago level, while foreign cargo volume registered an 18.1% hike. PPA said the strong performance of imports, which marked a growth of 19.61% to 12.893 mmt, and of exports, which rose in volume by 15%, propelled the positive performance of foreign cargoes.
“The growth in cargo volume was observed mainly in the ports of Dapitan, Marquez, Nasipit and Limay (which enjoyed) the biggest growth at 129.78%, 95.51%, 93.57%, and 63.79%, respectively,” PPA officer-in-charge Raul Santos said in a statement.
Containerized cargo volume likewise grew 5.23% to 958,628 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for the period under review from 910,955 TEUs in January-February 2015. Domestic boxes increased 5.30% to 374,978 TEUs from 356,121 TEUs a year earlier, while foreign boxes posted a 5.19% hike to 583,650 TEUs this year from 554,834 TEUs in 2015.
“As expected, Manila’s North Harbor port continues to rank first in terms of volume of domestic containerized cargo handled during the period with 172,694 TEUS,” Santos noted.
“The Manila International Container Terminal, on the other hand, continues to handle the largest volume of foreign containerized cargo with 328,309 TEUs, followed by South Harbor with 150,422 TEUs,” the added.
Private ports handled 20.16 mmt or 58.14% of the total cargo volume nationwide, while government ports accounted for 14.51 mmt or 41.86%.
Ship calls for the period went up 14.27% to 68,209 this year from 59,690 in 2015. Domestic and foreign ship calls grew by 13.99% and 26.34%, respectively.
Passenger numbers, on the other hand, reached 10.20 million or 11.56% higher than the figure registered in the first two months of last year.
For the full year of 2015, cargo volume processed by PPA ports dropped 33% to 141.498 mmt from the 221.241 mmt recorded in 2014, with both foreign and domestic cargoes sustaining volume cuts.
