The government’s Cabinet cluster on port decongestion will propose to President Aquino the expansion of express trade lanes dedicated to cargo trucks in anticipation of the peak shipping season, according to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).
At a press conference on August 11, PPA general manager Juan Sta. Ana said a draft executive order will be submitted to the President that involves opening up another six lanes that will service eastbound trades going to such areas as Cainta, Marikina, and Pasig. They will join two other existing trade lanes approved by the Manila City government.
The proposed trade routes include:
Southern truck route (a):
From Port Area to South Superhighway: Road 10/A. Bonifacio, left to P. Burgos, Finance Road, Ayala Boulevard, right to San Marcelino, left to President Quirino, and then right to President Osmeña Highway.
South Superhighway to Port Area: President Osmeña, right to President Quirino, left to Plaza Dilao, right to President Quirino Ext., left to United Nations Ave., right to Romualdez St., left to Ayala Boulevard, P. Burgos, then right to Bonifacio Drive/Road 10.
Southern truck route (b):
From Port Area to South Superhighway: Road 10/A. Bonifacio Drive, Roxas Blvd., left to President Quirino, and right to President Osmeña Highway.
Southern truck route (c):
From Port Area to Cavite and vice versa: Road 10/A. Bonifacio Drive, Roxas Blvd., and onward to Cavitex
Northern truck route:
From Port Area to NLEX: A. Bonifacio Drive/Road 10, right to C3, left to A. Bonifacio St., then proceed to NLEX.
NLEX to Port Area: Exit NLEX, onward to A. Bonifacio Ave., right to C3, right to Maria Clara St., left to 7th Ave., left to Baltazar St., right to C3, then left to Road 10/A. Bonifacio Drive.
Eastern truck route:
From Port Area to Pasig, Marikina, Cainta, and Antipolo/Teresa via Nichols/C5: Road 10/A. Bonifacio Drive, left to P. Burgos/Finance Road, straight to Ayala Blvd., right turn to San Marcelino St., right to President Quirino Ave., right to South Superhighway up to Nichols Bridge, left turn then right to service road, then left to C5, and straight to Ortigas Ext.
Via Pasig Blvd.-Dr. Sixto Antonio Ave.: From C5/Carlos P. Garcia Ave., right to Pasig Blvd., left to Dr. Sixto, then straight towards Ortigas Ave.
Port Area to Antipolo/Cainta/Pasig/Taguig via Quirino/Commonwealth: From Road 10/A. Bonifacio Drive, left to C3, left to A. Bonifacio Ave., exit left to Quirino Highway, right to Commonwealth Ave., U-turn right to Batasan Road, left to Batasan-San Mateo Road, right to JP Rizal St., left to Bayan-Bayanan Ave., take second right to E. Manalo St., left to Guerilla, turn second right to Mayor Gil Fernando Ave., then left to Sumulong Highway.
Asked if the draft executive order, once approved, would supersede other local government unit ordinances on the truck ban, Sta. Ana said this is for the national government to decide.
The PPA GM said the draft order is now with the Department of Transportation and Communications, which is validating the proposed routes.
Peak season
Ordinarily, Manila ports service a daily average of 5,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEU) import shipments. During the peak shipping season, starting in mid-September, this volume increases by 20%, Sta Ana said.
Since the Manila truck ban was implemented on February 24, however, only 3,500 TEUs were pulled out daily, leaving behind 1,500 TEUs at the ports on any given day, or a backlog of 135,000 TEUs in three months.
When the express trade lane was implemented in June, daily withdrawals increased to an estimated 4,200 TEUs, but still leaving behind some 800 TEUs each day.
To reduce the backlog and optimize Manila ports’ yard utilization levels to 80% even during the peak season, Sta. Ana said sweeper vessels, or vessels dedicated to loading empty boxes, are now being deployed by foreign shipping lines.
At the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), Hanjin pulled out 2,000 empty boxes over the last weekend and has proposed transferring 2,000 seized and abandoned cargoes to Subic port.
Port operator International Container Terminal Services, Inc. has offered its terminals in Subic Bay as temporary yards for empties.
Subic Bay’s New Container Terminal 1, operated by ICTSI subsidiary Subic Bay International Terminal Corp, will over the entire month of August host about 1,700 empty containers owned by Maersk. PortCalls sources said Maersk will move the containers out of congested Manila. The empties will be loaded onto a new boxship commissioned by Maersk from Hanjin in Subic set to be turned over end of August.
MOL and Pacific International Lines are due to load empties out of the MICT yard this week.
For the South Harbor, Hanjin has proposed transferring 1,000 seized and abandoned cargoes to Subic, while COSCO had already cleared 1,500 empties last week.
Evergreen and Yang Ming are regularly picking up empties, PPA said.
Sta. Ana said port operators will also allocate P14 million to lease a Hanjin vessel to load empties out of Manila ports for 15 days starting August 20 and ship them to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Kaohsiung which, PPA said, suffered from a deficit of empty containers.
The 1,200-TEU vessel will haul empties out of Manila ports thrice over a period of 15 days so that by September 3 about 3,600 TEUs would have been shipped out.
Sta. Ana assured stakeholders the transfer will not cost them anything and will be an advantage to terminals as this will free up space.
As of August 1, there were 8,844 empty containers at MICT and 10,647 empties at the Manila South Harbor, PPA said.
Being an importing country, the Philippines has a trade imbalance that makes it prone to accumulating empty containers, the port agency pointed out. For every four import boxes that enter the country, only one box is sent out as an export, with the remaining three becoming empty boxes.
Container depots
Meanwhile, the government, through the Department of Finance, is negotiating with the owners of a 10-hectare land at the Cultural Center of the Philippines complex to set up a temporary container yard in the area for empties bound for Manila ports.
Sta. Ana said they are now doing a technical evaluation of the area, and “compacting up the grounds” so cranes can operate there. However, Sta. Ana said operations at the container yard will be limited from midnight to the early morning hours so as not to disturb nearby establishments such as Sofitel Philippine Plaza.
Other identified off-dock container yards include the five-hectare IRS Eastern operated depot in Cavitex; a nine-hectare area owned by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA); five-hectare and four-hectare depots in Balagtas and Malvar in Bulacan; Asian Terminals Inc.’s five-hectare facility in Calamba, Laguna; ICTSI’s six-hectare depot in Cabuyao, Laguna that will be operational in 15 days; and a two-hectare yard at North Harbor.
PPA said PEZA has also set aside three hectares of land in Clark, Pampanga to serve as temporary container depot for containers under BOC jurisdiction. – Roumina Pablo
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