The volume of empty containers in Philippine depots remains high and the trend is seen to prevail throughout this year, according to operators.
“Yard utilization of our members remains at about 90%,” Container Depot Alliance of the Philippines president Carl Fontanilla told PortCalls.
“We have not recorded any substantial drop in the number of empties despite the Christmas season, meaning there is no significant activity outside of the Philippines,” he said.
In general, the faster empty containers are repositioned to other countries that need them, the more active the global economy. More empties sitting in depots reflect a lackluster demand, thus a slow global economy.
“The effect of any surge in the global economy on the Philippines is always late; we expect positive effects only after two years.”
High volume of empties in depots is a double-edged sword for operators: it means high revenues for their main source of business (storage of empty containers) but also low income from add-on services (container cleaning, washing, repair, etc).
“From the looks of it, it seems we have a very good business since our yards are full,” Fontanilla said in an earlier interview. “However, the only good thing going there is our main source of business, is the only one growing while our other add-on industry are down.”
“With this, we are anticipating a meek revenue growth by next year which is very much lower compared to our projection for 2012.”
At the moment, daily container volume handled by depot operators is at about 500 to 600 boxes, double the usual volume.
Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
