PHILIPPINE cargo volume declined 4.34% in the first three months of the year to 36.47 million metric tons (mmt) from 38.12 mmt in the same period last year.
Latest data from the Philippine Ports Authority also showed that domestic and foreign traffic declined 7.64% and 1.36%, respectively, for the period in review. Domestic cargo dwindled by 1.38 mmt to 16.68 mmt from 18.06 mmt, and foreign cargo by 0.273 mmt to 19.79 mmt from 20.06 mmt.
The Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) registered the most foreign cargo volume with 4.197 mmt and North Harbor, the most domestic cargo volume with 3.049 mmt.
Containerized cargo reached 1.16 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first quarter, up 9.37% more from the same quarter last year. MICT handled the most foreign containers with 396,737 TEUs followed by South Harbor with 204,453 TEUs.
North Harbor led in domestic container volume with 167,244 TEUs.
Accounting for the biggest share of volume or 13.75% to total throughput is the port of Batangas.
Other ports that made it to the top five were MICT with an 11.80% share; Limay, 11.68%; North Harbor, 11.52%; and South Harbor, 7.41%.
Puerto Princesa registered the biggest volume growth at 39.05% for the first three months after handling 0.398 mmt. The increase was attributed to high imports of coal and exports of sand aggregates, fish, chrome ore, chromite sand, manganese ore and nickel ore.
Tagbilaran suffered the biggest setback with a decline of 81.31% due to significant reduction in the shipment of grains, petroleum products and coal.
Shipcalls went down 1.24% from 82,346 in the first three months of last year to 81,322 this year. Domestic calls also dropped 1.23% while foreign vessel traffic slipped 1.71%.
From 12.12 million last year, passenger volume declined 7.79% to 11.17 million. The number of domestic and foreign passengers dropped 7.75% and 26.32%, respectively.
