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Cargo throughput at ports under the Philippine Ports Authority’s jurisdiction declined 0.16% year-on-year in 2022 as export volumes dropped by a double-digit percentage
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Containerized cargo rose 7.2% to 7.91 million TEUs
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Shipcalls increased 25.2%, passenger traffic surged 155.9%, and roll-on/roll-off traffic grew 44.9%
Cargo volume in ports under Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) jurisdiction declined 0.16% year-on-year in 2022 as exports recorded a double-digit-percentage drop, preliminary data from the PPA showed.
Cargoes totaled 261.62 million metric tons (mt) in 2022, compared with 262.05 million mt in 2021.
Of the total cargo volumes at PPA ports, foreign cargoes accounted for 61.3% while domestic cargoes contributed 38.7%. By region, Luzon ports accounted for 54.4% or 142.22 million mt, Mindanao ports, 28.7% or 75.19 million mt, and Visayas ports, 16.9% or 44.21 million mt.
Foreign cargo volumes slipped 3.1% to 160.45 million mt last year from 165.54 million mt in 2021. The drop was mainly due to exports declining 11.2% to 62.93 million mt, from 70.9 million mt in 2021.
Imports, on the other hand, grew 3% to 97.51 million mt in 2022 from 94.64 million mt in 2021.
Domestic cargoes likewise improved 4.8% last year to 101.17 million mt from 96.51 million mt.
Container cargo up 7%
For containerized cargoes, PPA ports handled 7.91 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in 2022, up 7.2% from the 7.37 million TEUs recorded in 2021.
Of the total, 61.8% were foreign containers while the rest were domestic boxes.
Last year, domestic containers increased 5.3% to 3.02 million TEUs from 2.87 million TEUs in 2021.
Foreign containers also grew 8.5% to 4.887 million TEUs from 4.504 million TEUs. Import boxes jumped 8.4% to 2.47 million TEUs from 2.28 million TEUs while export containers increased 8.6% to 2.42 million TEUs from 2.23 million TEUs.
Ship calls in PPA ports rose 25.2% in 2022 to 474,976 from 379,226 as domestic vessel calls, which accounted for 97.6% of the total, increased 26% to 463,562 from 367,448. Foreign ship calls, on the other hand, decreased 3% to 11,414 from 11,778.
Passenger traffic has improved with the easing of COVID-19-related protocols.
Last year, PPA ports handled 59.07 million passengers, a 155.9% surge from the 23.08 million recorded in 2021.
For roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) traffic likewise jumped 44.9% to 10.05 million last year from 6.93 million in 2021.
PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago had said earlier that the increase in passenger traffic in 2022 might be due to “revenge travel,” as people who had been cooped up for more than two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic realize their longing for travel.
The decline in cargo volumes and 7.2% increase in container traffic, meanwhile, fell short of Santiago’s forecast of close to 10% improvement for 2022. Prior to this, the initial target was 7% to 8%.
For 2023, Santiago said the target increase for cargo and containers is 7%-8%.
Cruise ships, meanwhile, are set to return this year after calls were suspended when the pandemic spread from Wuhan, China, in 2020. Santiago said to date, there is already a booking for a cruise ship call in Palawan in March. – Roumina Pablo
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