Philippine cargo throughput in the first half of the year went up 6.17% due to higher volume of foreign cargoes, particularly exports, according to latest data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).
Volume from January to June reached 89.565 million metric tons (mmt) from 84.357 mmt in the same period last year.
Foreign cargo volume increased 11.40% to 53.054 mmt from 47.624 mmt while domestic volume dipped 0.60% from 36.732 mmt to 36.510 mmt for the period in review.
Of the foreign cargo throughput, export volume advanced 20.66% to 25.520 mmt from 21.151 mmt; imports rose 4.01% from 26.473 mmt to 27.534 mmt.
Container traffic saw a 6% growth to 2.530 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 2.390 million TEUs.
Foreign container throughput accounted for 1.527 million TEUs, up 3.21% from 1.480 million TEUs handled in the same period last year.
Domestic boxes grew faster at 10.11% to 1.002 million TEUs from 910,299 TEUs.
Of the total foreign containerized cargo, imports represented 795,044 TEUs, a 7.75% jump from 737,836 TEUs; and exports, 732,820 TEUs, a 1.31% decline from 742,519 TEUs.
For the first six months of the year, passenger traffic grew slightly by 0.37% to 27.231 million from 27.130 million in the same period last year.
Domestic passengers accounted for 27.204 million or 0.39% more than the 27.099 million registered in 2011 while foreign passenger traffic represented 26,777, a decline of 13.76% from 31,049.
Shipcalls rose 1% to 175,573 in January-June 2012 from 173,715 calls last year. Domestic vessel calls went up 1.29% to 170,463 from 168,290; foreign calls went down 5.81% to 5,110 from 5,425.
June throughput
For June alone, cargo volume improved 10.62% to 17.176 mmt from 15.527 mmt in the same month last year. Of the latest total, foreign volume ate up 11.355 mmt, an advance of 24.23% from 9.140 mmt last year. Domestic cargo made up 5.821 mmt, a slip of 8.85% from 6.386 mmt.
Export volume jumped 47.16% in June to 6.815 mmt from 4.631 mmt; import cargo inched up 0.67% to 4.539 mmt from 4.509 mmt.
Container traffic posted a 6.72% hike to 430,120 TEUs from 403,024 TEUs.
Foreign boxes totaled 262,395 TEUs or 6.92% higher than the 245,415 TEUs registered last year. Import containers rose 7.33% to 135,586 TEUs while export boxes went up 6.49% to 126,809 TEUs.
Domestic container throughput improved 6.42% to 167,725 TEUs from 157,610 TEUs.
Photo courtesy of Asian Terminals, Inc
