MANILA, MAY 4, 2016—Philippine cargo volume posted a 13% rise in the first two months of the year anchored on the strong performance of the foreign cargo sector.
Latest data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) showed that total cargo volume is at 34.672 million metric tons (MMT) as of end February compared to the 30.645 MMT posted a year earlier.
The data also showed that domestic cargo throughput reached 15.793 MMT or a modest 7.73% increase compared to its year ago level while foreign cargo volume registered an 18.1% hike compared to the figure posted in 2015. The strong performance of imports that penciled a growth of 19.61% to 12.893 MMT and the export volume that rose 15% propelled the huge showing of the sector.
“The growth in cargo volume was observed mainly in the ports of Dapitan, Marquez, Nasipit and Limay enjoying the biggest growth at 129.78%, 95.51%, 93.57%, and 63.79%, respectively,” PPA officer-in-charge Raul T. Santos said in a statement.
Containerized cargo volume, on the other hand, likewise went up by 5.23% to 958,628 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 910,955 TEUs for the period in review wherein domestic boxes increased 5.30% to 374,978 TEUs from 356,121 TEUs a year earlier while foreign boxes posted a 5.19% hike from 554,834 TEUs in 2015 to 583,650 TEUs this year.
“As expected, Manila’s North Harbor port continues to rank first in terms of volume of domestic containerized cargo handled during the period with 172,694 TEUS,” Santos added in the statement.
“The Manila International Container Terminal, on the other hand, continues to handle the largest volume of foreign containerized cargo with 328,309 TEUs followed by South Harbor with 150,422 TEUs,” Santos explained.
“Moreover, private ports handled 20.16 MMT or 58.14% of the total cargo volume nationwide while government ports accounted for 14.51 MMT or 41.86%,” Santos said.
Meanwhile, shipcalls for the period went up by 14.27% or from 59,690 in 2015 to 68,209 this year. Domestic and foreign shipcalls grew by 13.99% and 26.34%, respectively.
Passenger volume, for the period in review, reached 10.20 million or 11.56% higher compared to the volume registered in the same period last year.