Container traffic at Subic Bay’s New Container Terminal 1 (NCT 1) surged 243.7% in August to 8,770.25 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), the highest monthly volume this year, from 2,551.75 TEUs posted in August 2013.
This brings throughput for the first eight months of the year to 34,746.25 TEUs, up 54.58% from 22,437.75 TEUs year-on-year.
The eight-month volume is just 0.3% or 100.75 TEUs shy of the 34,847 TEUs full-year volume recorded in 2013.
Last year, monthly throughput at NCT 1 averaged 2,000 TEUs compared to this year’s over 3,000 TEUs monthly average.
The surge in volume is a direct result of more shippers shifting cargo to Subic to avoid congestion at Manila ports caused by the Manila daytime truck ban.
NCT 1, operated by Subic Bay International Terminal Corp, a subsidiary of International Container Terminal Services, Inc., has an annual capacity of 300,000 TEUs. Adjacent NCT2 has a similar capacity.
Wan Hai, APL and Swire Shipping are Subic’s direct callers.
Early this year, Japanese shipping line NYK entered into a co-loading arrangement with APL at Subic. There are reports that NYK will increase its presence in Subic starting next month.
Another port some shippers have shifted to because of the Manila truck ban is Batangas. Asian Terminals Inc, which operates Batangas Container Terminal, reported a 254% increase in container throughput at the terminal in the second quarter of the year. The volume in the first half of the year has already surpassed the volume handled for the entire 2013.
PortCalls sources have complained that congestion has reached Batangas port, with payment for arrastre services now taking two to three hours. There are also reports of container equipment not working properly and the lack of truck operators in the area. – Roumina Pablo
Photo courtesy of Subic Bay International Terminal Corp
