The Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) handled the bulk or 11.34% of the country’s total cargo volume in the first five months of the year.
Latest data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) showed MICT processed 8.237 million metric tons (mmt) of cargo from January to May, an improvement of 11.56% over the 7.384 mmt handled in the comparable period last year.
The country’s top domestic port North Harbor came in second with 5.519 mmt for a share of 7.60%. However, the latest volume declined 0.63% from last year’s 5.554 mmt.
South Harbor was in third spot accounting for 4.08% or 2.960 mmt of the total throughput. Compared to last year’s 3.591 mmt, the latest figure declined 17.58%.
Davao, where most of the country’s banana and other fruit exports pass, was fourth with a share of 2.89% or 2.094 mmt. This is 6.31% less than 2.235 mmt recorded in the January to May 2011 period.
Cagayan de Oro took in 2.19% or 1.588 mmt of the total, a 6.65% improvement over last year’s 1.489 mmt.
Batangas Port handled most of the shipcalls for the five-month period with a share of 12.54% or 18,545 ships.
Dumaguete was in second spot with 11.12% of the total or 16,443 shipcalls.
In third place was Pulupandan with a 7.16% share; fourth was Davao with 6.81%; and fifth, Tagbilaran with 6.80%.
The five ports that handled the most passengers for the five-month period were Batangas which accounted for 13.46% of the total; Calapan, 11.40%; Tagbilaran, 8.36%; Legazpi, 8.30%; and Pulupandan, 6.73%.
Philippine cargo throughput posted a modest increase from January to May anchored on strong performance of the export sector and domestic container traffic.
Volume reached 72.649 mmt for the period, up 5.55% from 68.830 mmt in the comparable period last year.
Export throughput increased 11.31% to 18.387 mmt from 16.519 mmt while domestic containerized cargo volume rose 10.96% to 835,190 twenty-foot equivalent units from 752,689 TEUs last year.
Photo courtesy of International Container Terminal Services, Inc
