Cargo volume handled by Philippine ports grew 6.4% to 59.285 million metric tons (mt) in the first quarter of 2019 from 55.702 million mt in the same quarter last year as both foreign and domestic cargoes recorded improvements, data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) showed.
Of the total, 56% was contributed by foreign cargoes, which reached 33.075 million mt in the first three months of the year, 6.9% up from the 30.932 million mt recorded in the first quarter of 2018. Import cargoes rose 10.4% to 24.529 million mt from 22.214 million mt, while exports went down 2% to 8.546 million mt from 8.718 million mt.
Domestic cargoes, which accounted for 44% of the total, improved 5.8% to 26.21 million mt from 24.769 million mt.
In terms of regions, 63% of the total first-quarter 2019 volume, or 37.235 million mt, was recorded in Luzon ports. This was 5.8% higher than the 35.195 million mt posted in the same period last year.
In the Visayas, cargoes handled reached 9.874 million mt, or 17% of the total and 13.2% higher than the 8.722 million mt recorded in the first quarter of 2018.
Volumes in Mindanao ports, whose share was 20% of the total, grew 3.3% to 12.175 million mt from 11.784 million mt previously.
Container throughput likewise increased 8.2% to 1.897 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first quarter of 2019 from 1.754 million TEUs in the same period last year.
Of the total, foreign boxes went up 5.3% to 1.113 million TEUs from 1.057 million TEUs, while domestic containers jumped 12.4% to 783,287 TEUs from 696,736 TEUs.
Roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) traffic gained 8.2% to 1.736 million in this year’s first quarter from 1.604 million in the same period last year. Of the total, inward RoRo traffic grew 8% to 868,919 from 804,730, while outward traffic was 8.5% higher to 867,034 from 799,135.
Shipcalls recorded during the period increased 6.3% to 117,524 from 110,602. Of the total, domestic shipcalls were at 114,930 vessels, 6.5% up from 107,891 vessels last year. Foreign ship calls, however, declined 4.3% to 2,594 ships from the previous 2,711 ships.
Passenger traffic slightly grew to 18.117 million passengers in the first three months of the year, 1.4% higher than the 17.863 million passengers in the same period last year. Disembarking passengers were up 1.6% to 9.145 million passengers from 9.002 million passengers, while embarking passengers increased 2.8% to 8.861 million passengers from 8.623 million passengers.
However, cruise passengers went down 53% to 111,163 passengers from 237,824 passengers last year. – Roumina Pablo
