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Cargo volume in the first half declined 0.5% as foreign cargoes, which made up 59% of the total, dropped
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Container traffic, on the other hand, grew 5.1%
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Shipcalls, roll on-roll off and passenger traffic surged 26%, 50.8%, and 162%, respectively
Ports under Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) jurisdiction saw a 0.5% dip in overall cargo volume to 126.73 million metric tons (MMT) in the first half of the year from 127.35 MMT year-on-year.
Container as well as roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) traffic, shipcalls and passenger count, on the other hand, increased for the same period in review, preliminary data from PPA showed.
Of the total cargo throughput, 59% were foreign and the rest domestic.
Foreign cargoes declined 4.9% to 75.21 MMT from 79.08 MMT while domestic cargoes grew 6.7% to 51.51 MMT from 48.27 MMT.
Imports rose 1.7% to 47.08 MMT from 46.28 MMT but exports fell 14.2% to 28.14 MMT from 32.79 MMT.
Luzon ports, which accounted for 57% of the total cargo volume for the period, handled 2.3% more cargoes for the first half of the year with 72.63 MMT from 70.96 MMT.
Visayas ports, which represented 17% of the total, registered 21.93 MMT, 5.1% more than the 20.87 MMT posted last year.
Accounting for 25% of the total throughput, Mindanao ports reported a 9.4% decline in volume to 32.17 MMT from 35.51 MMT a year ago.
Container trade up 5.1%
Containerized cargoes grew 5.1% in the first half to 3.82 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 3.64 million TEUs in the same period in last year.
Domestic containers grew 4.3% to 1.5 million TEUs from 1.44 million a year ago while foreign containers increased 5.6% to 2.32 million TEUs from 2.20 million TEUs.
Import boxes rose 6.2% to 1.16 million TEUs from 1.10 million TEUs. Export containers likewise improved 5% to 1.16 million TEUs from 1.10 million TEUs.
There were 6.5% more containers in Luzon ports in the first half with 2.83 million TEUs from 2.66 million last year.
Visayas ports handled 4.5% more containers at 250,141 TEUs from 239,472 a year ago. Mindanao ports recorded a 0.2% rise to 741,080 TEUs from 739,862 a year ago.
As COVID-19 restrictions eased, PPA recorded 26% more shipcalls in the first six months at 230,687 vessels from 183,222 ships in the same period last year.
Domestic shipcalls, which accounted for majority of the total shipcalls, jumped 26.9% to 225,052 ships from 177,350 ships while foreign shipcalls were 4% fewer at 5,635 ships from 5,872 a year ago.
Ro-Ro traffic grew 50.8% to 5.01 million in the first half from 3.32 million a year ago. Inbound traffic climbed 49% to 2.51 million from 1.68 million while outbound traffic surged 52.4% to 2.50 million from 1.64 million.
PPA ports also serviced 162% more passengers in the first half. Passenger traffic soared to 27.98 million from 10.69 a year ago. Disembarked passengers shot up 161% to 14.14 million from 5.42 million a year ago while embarked passengers soared 162% to 13.84 million from 5.28 million. – Roumina Pablo
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