The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) is assuring stakeholders that Manila ports will remain efficient and congestion-free even as Christmas cargoes start to come in.
In a statement, the agency said utilization at Manila ports beginning the last quarter of the year remains healthy, with the terminals having enough space to accommodate incoming cargoes for the holiday season.
PPA general manager Jay Daniel R. Santiago said productivity at the three Manila ports–Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), Manila South Harbor (MSH), and Manila North Port (MNP)—continues to be strong, with no slowdown expected throughout the Christmas rush.
“As of the moment, the combined yard utilization at the two international Manila ports MICT and MSH is at 60.12% or about 20% below the optimum level of 80%,” Santiago said.
“It is also worthy to note that both terminals posted at least a 10% increase in their respective productivity as of end September, suggesting fully functional Manila ports,” Santiago explained.
“The premier domestic terminal, the MNP, has a yard utilization rate of 43.40%, giving the port enough elbow room for anticipated increase in demand at this point in time,” Santiago added.
“With a combined average quay crane productivity of the three terminals at 26 moves per hour per crane, barring any major development, we can guarantee congestion-fee Manila ports at any given time,” Santiago said.
The 60.12% utilization rate, meanwhile, means there are some 48,900 containers inside the terminals while 32,600 container slots remain vacant. With container gate-outs almost reaching 8,000 container-outs per day, the utilization rate is expected at around 55% to 60% utilization rate until past the Christmas season.
Even the anticipated tight security measures brought about by the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) heads of states in the middle of November, which is expected to disrupt vessel and transport delivery movements, are not expected to make a significant dent in flow of goods at the Manila ports.
PPA, however, is still advising all cargo owners to plan their cargo withdrawal from and deposit at the ports ahead of time to reduce any delays due to the ASEAN event that is likely to be attended by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The port authority, meanwhile, said the decision of the Bureau of Customs to temporarily shut down its green lane operations and inspect majority of imported cargoes is not expected to disrupt the smooth flow of goods to and from the terminals.
READ: Use of green lane temporarily on hold
To date (third week of October), PPA said, total container volume reached 4.609 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), higher by 8.84% compared to the 4.235 million TEUs handled in the same period last year. About 85% of the total, or some 3.917 million TEUs, was handled by the Manila ports wherein 2.703 million TEUs were foreign boxes composed of import and export cargoes while 1.905 million TEUs were domestic containers.
After revising a flat growth forecast early this year, the PPA is expecting a modest increase in cargo volume of about 5% to 7% this year, brought about by the country’s robust economy.
