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Cargo volumes at Philippine Ports Authority ports grew 4.6% in the first half as both domestic and foreign cargoes increased
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Container traffic eased 4.6%, mainly due to a double-digit decline in domestic boxes
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Ship calls increased 13.7%, boosted by growth in domestic ship calls
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Passenger traffic surged 23.9% to 34.74 million as the passenger shipping industry rebounds
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Roll-on/roll-off traffic also grew 2.7% to 5.173 million
Philippine ports’ cargo volume grew 4.6% in the first half of the year with increases in both domestic and foreign cargo throughput, preliminary data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) showed.
Cargo volume of ports under PPA jurisdiction reached 128.84 million metric tons (mt) from 123.22 million mt year-on-year, according to the data from the agency website.
Accounting for 62% of the total volume, foreign cargoes improved 5.8% to 79.90 million mt from 75.49 million mt.
Domestic cargoes also increased 2.5% to 48.95 million mt from 47.745 million mt.
Luzon ports accounted for 55.7% of the total cargo throughput, followed by Mindanao ports with 24.7% and Visayas ports with 19.6%.
Import boxes rose 5% to 49.67 million mt from 47.31 million mt while exports climbed 7.3% to 30.23 million mt from 28.18 million mt.
Container throughput
PPA ports handled 3.66 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first six months of the year, down 4.6% from 3.83 million TEUs in the same period last year as domestic boxes posted a double-digit decline.
Domestic containers, which made up 34% of the total box throughput, decreased 17.8% to 1.24 million TEUs from 1.52 million.
Foreign containers, on the other hand, rose 3.9% to 2.41 million TEUs from 2.320 million TEUs.
Import boxes increased 2% to 1.19 million TEUs from 1.16 million while export containers grew 5.9% to 1.224 million TEUs.
Luzon ports handled 2.9% fewer containers with 2.75 million TEUs in the first half of 2023 from 2.84 million TEUs year-on-year.
Visayas ports recorded the biggest decline of 15.2% to 212,473 TEUs from 250,417 TEUs.
Mindanao ports throughput dropped 7.6% to 690,483 TEUs from 747,356 TEUs.
More ships, particularly on the domestic side, called PPA ports in the first semester. Ship calls increased 13.7% to 262,872 from 231,277 in the first half of 2022.
Domestic ship calls, which make up the majority of the total, grew 14.1% to 257,382 from 225,631.
In contrast, foreign ship calls decreased 2.8% to 5,490 from 5,646.
Passenger traffic continued to recover this year, recording a 23.9% surge to 34.74 million from 28.05 million in the first half of 2022.
PPA recorded 44,560 cruise passengers during the first half of 2023 as cruise ships began returning to Philippine shores after the pandemic shut ports.
Roll-on/roll-off traffic grew 2.7% to 5.17 million in the first six months of this year from 5.04 million in the same period in 2022.
PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago earlier said his agency is looking at a 7-8% growth in cargo and container traffic this year. – Roumina Pablo
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