Cargo throughput handled by Philippine ports in the first half of 2015 dropped 30.1% to 71.906 million metric tons (mmt) from 102.876 mmt in the same period last year, according to latest data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).
Of the total, foreign cargoes accounted for 57% or 41.082 mmt, 35.8% lower than the 63.987 mmt recorded in the same period last year.
Domestic cargoes likewise declined, sliding 20.7% to 30.823 mmt from 38.889 mmt previously.
Imports went down 23% to 23.816 mmt from 30.921 mmt, while exports dove 47.8% to 17.267 mmt from 33.066 mmt.
The decline in volumes generally hews to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority which recorded a 2.8% and 4.7% dip in the value of imports and exports respectively in the first half of 2015 vis-à-vis the same period in 2014.
For the second quarter alone, PPA data showed that cargo volume fell 30.2% to 40.725 mmt from 58.317 mmt in the second quarter of 2014.
Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) handled the most throughput in the first six months of 2015 with 10.464 mmt, 1.1% higher than last year’s 10.352 mmt. Manila North Harbor came next with 8.053 mmt, up 10% from 7.347 mmt. In third place was Cagayan de Oro which processed 2.597 mmt this year from 2.158 mmt last year.
In the first half of the year, container traffic at Philippine ports grew 8.2% to 2.749 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 2.541 million TEUs year-on-year.
The volume of foreign boxes increased 6.8% to 1.596 million TEUs from 1.494 million TEUs, while that for domestic containers shot up 10.2% to 1.153 million TEUs from 1.047 million TEUs.
MICT continued to post the highest number of containers handled with 976,596 TEUs in January-June 2015, up 10% from 888,926 TEUs in the first half of 2014. North Harbor followed with 527,208 TEUs, a 4.4% rise from 504,888 TEUs last year, while South Harbor serviced 360,506 TEUs, 8.3% down from 393,065 TEUs last year. Next was Davao Sasa with 142,182 TEUs, improving 33% from 106,818 TEUs previously.
Meanwhile, ship calls rose 0.8% to 182,810 vessels from 181,379 ships in the first semester of 2014. Of the total, foreign vessels that called Philippine ports were fewer by 8.3%, going down to 4,489 calls in the first six months of the year from 4,896 in the corresponding period last year. Domestic calls grew 1% to 178,321 from 176,483 previously. It must be noted that fewer vessel calls may mean some liners have deployed bigger vessels.
Passenger traffic decreased 3.1% to 29.38 million from 30.315 million last year. – Roumina Pablo
