SBMA’s Jan-Sept port take up 14% to P1.14B

• Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority generated P1.15 billion of port revenues from January to September 2022, up 14% from the P1 billion posted in the same period last year

• Containerized cargo decreased 1% while non-containerized cargo increased 14%

• SBMA chairman and administrator Rolen Paulino said Subic port’s performance is gaining momentum and is likely to break last year’s records

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) recorded P1.15 billion of port revenues from January to September 2022, an increase of 14% from P1 billion posted in the same period last year.

Port revenues were derived from vessel charges, cargo charges, processing fee, SBMA share, lease/rental of facilities, and other charges, the authority said in a statement.

“The record increase in port revenues this year compared with last year shows that the port sector of the Subic Bay Freeport is thriving, so we are expecting more ship calls here as we gradually ease out of the effects and restrictions of the pandemic,” SBMA chairman and administrator Rolen Paulino said.

SBMA Seaport Department general manager Jerome Martinez said the January-September represents 81% of the P1.41 billion forecast port revenue for full year 2022. The port only needs to earn P267.59 million until December to achieve its target.

During the same period, Subic port received 1,810 ship calls, an increase of 24% or 350 ships from the 1,460 ship calls recorded in the same period last year.

Of the 1,810 ship calls, foreign vessels accounted for 1,087, which was 18% higher than the 921 foreign ship calls in the first nine months of 2021.

Domestic ship calls likewise rose 34% to 723 vessels from 539 vessels last year.

Subic port also recorded higher gross revenue tons (GRT) handled in the first nine months of 2022. It increased 30% to 22.852 million GRT from 17.52 million GRT during the same period last year.

SBMA senior deputy administrator for operations Ronnie Yambao said foreign vessels that called the port during the period accounted for a 31% rise in tonnage to 22.24 million GRT, from last year’s 17.03 million GRT.

The tonnage of domestic vessel that called at Subic port grew 25% to 611,896 GRT from last year’s 489,449 GRT.

Non-containerized cargo, meanwhile, climbed 14% to 5.54 million MT from 4.86 million MT.

Containerized cargo traffic, however, declined 1% to 190,168 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in the first nine months of the year, from 192,217 TEUs in the same period last year.

Paulino said that despite this “little hiccup” in container traffic, the outlook for Subic port is getting better, and would likely trample last year’s records.

“The hit rate for our key performance indicators are around 90%, with only containerized cargo volume lagging, but I am sure that the agency will hit the mark before the year ends,” he said.

Martinez earlier said SBMA was targeting a 5% improvement in containerized cargo this year to 265,938 TEUs from 253,274 TEUs in 2021.

READ: SBMA sees 3% port revenue growth, 5% container volume hike in 2022

Non-containerized cargo volume, meanwhile, is expected to grow 2% to 6.47 million MT, from 6.34 million MT in 2021.

Ship calls are also forecast to improve 2% this year to 762 domestic vessels and 1,251 foreign.