The Port of Cebu hummed with activity in the first six months of 2015, registering healthy growth in overall cargo volume, box traffic, ship calls, and passenger numbers, data from the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) showed.
Cargo throughput at Cebu port rose 21.3% in the first semester to 20.625 million metric tons (mmt) from 16.999 mmt in the same period last year.
Domestic cargoes, which accounted for 76.4% of the total, reached 15.76 mmt, or 25.9% higher than the 12.521 mmt handled in the first half of 2014.
Foreign cargoes likewise increased 8.7% to 4.865 mmt from 4.477 mmt last year, and contributed 23.6% to the total in January-June 2015.
Imports went up 12.19% to 3.648 mmt from 3.252 mmt last year. Exports, however, slightly declined 0.7% to 1.217 mmt from 1.225 mmt in the first half of last year.
Container traffic jumped 17.4% to 401,099 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), up from 341,543 TEUs in the first half of 2014. Of the total, domestic boxes accounted for 57% with 229,842.5 TEUs, 11% more than last year’s 206,189 TEUs. Foreign boxes, which represented 42.7% of the total, also surged 26.5% to 171,256 TEUs from 135,353 TEUs last year.
Ship calls, meanwhile, increased 2.5% to 56,854 vessels from 55,481 vessels last year. Domestic calls accounted for 56,355, up 2.5% from 54,971, while foreign calls reached 499, or 2.2% lower than the 510 calls last year.
Passenger traffic in the first half expanded 10% to 9.66 million from 8.796 million in the same period last year.
Earlier, CPA said its mother agency, the Department of Transportation and Communications, will be seeking approval of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board to construct a P9-billion international port in Consolacion, Cebu.
The proposed gateway is among CPA’s measures to mitigate congestion at the existing base port in Cebu City.
The Cebu International Port (CIP) faced berth and yard congestion issues from last year through early this year due to an increase in cargo volume, among others.
After CPA took several steps to ease congestion, yard utilization at the terminal went down to around 60% in August.
Yard utilization at CIP as of September 2 was 66%, according to the port’s cargo-handling service provider Oriental Port & Allied Services Corporation. – Roumina Pablo
