THERE will be no port congestion despite the expected surge in cargo volumes during the “ber” months, the Philippine Ports Authority said Sunday.
PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago said the country’s cargo volume climbed another 11 percent in the first seven months of the year compared with last year.
“Despite the surging numbers, we guarantee that our ports will remain clog-free and can accommodate the increasing cargo, passenger and ship call volumes,” Santiago said in a statement.
“The strong performance of the cargo segment underscores the country’s economic resilience. The strong numbers in the passage sector also suggests the continuing vibrancy of both the local and international travel industries and more people are now considering traveling using ships.”
The combined yard utilization at the Manila ports is now at 40 percent, with about 32,600 TEUs inside the terminals while yard productivity ranges from 20 to 30 moves an hour.
Santiago said the efficient yard management for the Manila terminals was partly due to the truck Terminal Appointment Booking System or TABS imposed recently that increased port efficiency by at least 96 percent.
Before the TABS, the average daily gateouts at the Manila ports was at 4,500 to 5,000 TEUs as compared to the post-TABS imposition of 7,000 to 7,500 TEUs daily gateouts.
“With this kind of yard utilization, we can say that Philippine ports are ready to handle the expected increase in the volume of cargo due to the run-up to Christmas,” Santiago said.
Data from the PPA showed that the total cargo throughput reached 141.770 million metric tons this year from 128.217 MMT in the first seven months in 2015.
Foreign cargo volume rose 12 percent to 86.302 MMT while domestic traffic recorded a nine-percent increase.
Similarly, passenger volume registered an 11-percent hike at 42.492 million for the same period, up from 38.213 million last year.
Foreign passenger volume rose 69 percent to 71,514 passengers while domestic passenger volume posted an 11-percent increase to 42.420 million passengers.
Santiago said the ports of Agusan, Mindoro, Panay/Guimaras, NCR North and Negros Oriental/Siquijor posted the biggest growth percentage in local and foreign cargo, while North Harbor remained the top performer in terms of domestic cargo volume.
Manila International Container Terminal Services Inc. remained the country’s top handler of foreign boxes, processed 1.241-million TEUs for the first seven months of the year followed by the Manila South Harbor with 584,598 TEUs.
North Harbor posted the highest volume of domestic boxes handled with 696,495 TEUs.
The ship calls for the same period went up nine percent from 234,468 in 2015 to 255,037 this year, with domestic and foreign ship calls growing by 8.45 percent and 21.91 percent, respectively.