Philippine cargo throughput inched up 1.26% in the first ten months of 2012 to 151.881 million metric tons (mmt) from the previous year’s 149.992 mmt, latest data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) showed.
For October alone, volume reached 17.905 mmt, of which 10.873 mmt was accounted for by foreign volume and the rest by domestic volume.
Containerized volume totaled 449,220 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for October. Domestic boxes represented 171,483 TEUs and foreign boxes, 277,737 TEUs.
Of the total volume from January to October, foreign cargo contributed 92.460 mmt. This is up 4.74% from the previous year’s 88.278 mmt. Import volume reached 46.706 mmt, an increase of 5.19% and export volume 4.28%.
Domestic cargoes ate up 59.420 mmt of the total ten-month volume, down 3.72% from the previous year.
Container throughput rose 11.23% for the 10-month period to 4.530 million TEUs from 4.073 million TEUs during the same period last year.
The volume of foreign containers reached 2.932 million TEUs, 17.42% more than the previous year’s 2.497 million TEUs. Domestic containers inched up 1.42% to 1.597 million TEUs from 1.575 million TEUs in 2011.
Import volume accounted for 1.678 million TEUs of the aggregate foreign box volume, advancing 34.59% from 1.246 million TEUs last year. Export volume rose 0.30% to 1.254 million TEUs from 1.251 million TEUs.
For the same period in review, PPA noted substantial increases in cargo volume for 16 port management offices, the highest of which were posted by the ports of Puerto Princesa and Nasipit.
Declines were recorded in South Harbor — due to the closure of Pier 13 and the limited number of vessels using Pier 15 — and ports of Cotabato, Ormoc and Iloilo.
The Manila International Container Terminal handled the largest volume of foreign containerized cargo with 1.412 million TEUs, followed by South Harbor with 769,542 TEUs and the port of Davao with 283,118 TEUs.
North Harbor led in the containerized domestic cargo space, handling 640,389 TEUs from January to October.
Shipcalls for the period dipped 1.14% from 284,013 in 2011 to 280,783 in 2012. Domestic and foreign shipcalls decreased 0.87% and 9.06%, respectively, as a result of consolidation moves by carriers where bigger but fewer vessels are being deployed.
Passenger volume reached 40.77 million, 1.23% less than in the same period last year. Competition from budget airlines offering promo fares has been responsible for the continuing shift of domestic sea-based travelers to air transport.
