What’s Up At The Port of Batangas?

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The attention that the Port of Batangas has been getting the past month is so extensive that some of our readers have emailed me to request clarification. It seems there is much confusion as to what the “Port of Batangas” really means to those who talk about it.

 

I will do my best to help clarify these through available fact and figures.

 

Port of Batangas (BOC)

Electronic transactions with the Bureau of Customs’ electronic-to-mobile (e2m) System in Batangas (electronic manifest and import entry declaration) use four customs port codes: P04 – Port of Batangas, P04A – Subport of Puerto Princesa, P04B – subport of Siain, and P04C – Bauan.

 

Port of Batangas (PPA)

The baseport of Philippine Ports Authority Port Management Office (PMO) Batangas encompasses Phase I and Phase II. There are at least 37 private ports under PMO Batangas (source: www.ppa.com.ph/batangas).

 

Port of Batangas (ATI)

The port of Batangas terminal of Asian Terminals Inc has three units: Passenger Terminal, General Cargo Terminal, and Batangas Container Terminal (source: www.asianterminals.com.ph)

 

All the attention and news reports about the truck ban in the city of Manila and “shifting transport of containerized shipments to Batangas, maximizing use of the Port of Batangas, and shipping lines increasing vessel calls in Batangas” actually refer to only one location: ATI Batangas Container Terminal located in PPA Port of Batangas Phase II and assigned as customs port code P04 by BOC e2m system.

 

Important note to our readers: ATI Batangas Terminal, Bauan International Port and other private ports may have the capacity to handle non-containerized shipments transferring from the main ports in Manila as discharge/loading port but so far the focus of all the attention in “Port of Batangas” is container shipments (both import and export).

 

Latest Profile of Port of Batangas (P04) – Import Cargo

During the month of April 2014, the following transaction profile is observed based on import shipment transactions:

 

–          No less than 12 shipping agents had vessel calls

–          Four shipping agents out of the total 12 above had container shipments

–          About 13 forwarders/consolidators had inbound shipments

 

What Else Is New?

The Philippine Export Zone Authority (PEZA) recently instructed all its accredited Value-Added Service Providers (VASPs) to conduct training for BOC Port of Batangas Export Division staff on the processing of PEZA electronic export declarations (ED). This training was conducted last week.

 

Should PEZA finally decide to implement mandatory electronic export declaration in the Port of Batangas and eliminate hard copy ED submission and manual processing, this development will provide another boost to increased utilization of Port of Batangas for export container shipments.

 

Leo V. Morada is a domain expert on IT applications in Philippine port operations with 25 years’ senior IT management experience implementing technology solutions in port operations, electronic transactions with customs & port authority, and air/sea port community system applications. He is CEO of Cargo Data Exchange Center, Inc, a customs-accredited Value Added Service Provider. He may be contacted at lmorada3f1@yahoo.com.