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Cargo volume handled by Philippine ports for the first nine months of 2021 grew 12.6%
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Domestic cargoes increased 4% while foreign cargoes rose 18.2%
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Container traffic improved 11.4% to 5.481 million TEUs
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Shipcalls and roll-on/roll-off traffic advanced 9% and 32%, respectively, while passenger traffic declined 29.5% due to ongoing travel restrictions
Cargo volume handled by Philippine ports for the first nine months of 2021 grew 12.6% as both domestic and foreign cargoes registered increases during the period, preliminary data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) showed.
From January to September 2021, ports under PPA jurisdiction processed 200.051 million metric tons, higher than the 177.656 million MT recorded in the same period last year.
Foreign cargoes represented 64% of the total and domestic cargoes, 36%.
Foreign cargoes increased 18.2% to 127.652 million MT in the first nine months of the year from 108.014 million MT year-on-year.
Domestic cargoes expanded 4% to 72.399 million MT from 69.643 million MT.
Of the total foreign cargoes, imports accounted for 56% while the rest were exports.
Imports improved 7.2% to 71.037 million MT from 66.277 million MT, while exports jumped 35.6% to 56.615 million MT from 41.737 million MT.
In terms of region, Luzon contributed 52% to the total cargo volume, followed by Mindanao with 32% and Visayas with 16%.
Cargoes handled by Luzon ports in the first nine months of 2021 reached 104.536 million MT, up 10.5% from 94.561 million MT in the same period last year.
Visayas ports registered the highest growth among the regions with a 21.9% expansion to 31.485 million MT from 25.837 million MT last year.
Mindanao ports posted an 11.8% increment to 64.031 million MT from 57.258 million MT.
Container traffic in the January to September 2021 period reached 5.481 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), 11.4% higher than the 4.919 million TEUs recorded in the same period last year.
Domestic containers rose 6% to 2.127 million TEUs from 2.007 million TEUs, while foreign containers advanced 15.1% to 3.354 million TEUs from 2.913 million TEUs.
Import containers hit 1.684 million TEUs, up 16% from 1.452 million TEUs last year. Export containers improved 14.3% to 1.670 million TEUs from 1.461 million TEUs.
All three regions recorded growth in container volumes in the first nine months of 2021.
Luzon ports handled 4.000 million TEUs, 14% more than the 3.509 million TEUs last year.
Visayas ports saw a slight increase (0.4%) to 355,158.75 TEUs from 353,776 TEUs, while container traffic at Mindanao ports grew 6.5% to 1.125 million TEUs from 1.057 million TEUs.
Shipcalls in the first nine months of 2021 were 9% higher at 268,785 vessels from 246,776 vessels in the same period in 2020.
Domestic shipcalls, which accounted for almost 97% of the total, reached 259,851 vessels, up 9.2% from the 237,927 vessels logged last year.
Foreign shipcalls also improved 1% to 8,934 vessels from 8,849 vessels.
Continuing travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect passenger traffic, registering 29.5% less at 14.99 million in January to September 2021 from 21.252 million year-on-year.
Roll-on/roll-off traffic, meanwhile, grew 32% for the first nine months of 2021 to 4.846 from 3.669 million in the same period in 2020.
PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago earlier said the agency expected a further increase in cargo volumes in the fourth quarter as the holiday season approached, as well as early next year due to heightened activities in China in view of the Chinese New Year.
For full-year 2021, PPA forecasts a 5% increase in cargo volume across all operational areas but this is lower than the 7% increase forecast last March. Container volume is predicted to grow by 6% to 8% for the full year.
The reduced forecast is based on National Economic and Development Authority macroeconomic estimates, PPA noted. Just last August, the Development Budget Coordination Committee, of which NEDA is a member, revised downward its growth assumption for this year to 4% to 5% from 6% to 7% previously as stricter quarantine restrictions were being re-imposed in various areas of the country to address heightened risks brought by the COVID-19 Delta variant.
For full-year 2021, PPA’s cargo throughput target is 244,001 million MT, higher than the 243,989 million MT posted in 2020.
For containerized cargoes, the target this year is 7.09 million TEUs from 6.757 million TEUs in 2020. – Roumina Pablo
