Cargo volume increased in the first quarter despite the global pandemic, while sea travel slowed on travel restrictions, data from state-run Philippine Ports Authority showed over the weekend.
The PPA said cargo throughput grew 5 percent to 54.85 million metric tons in the first three months from 52.21 million MT in the same period last year.
Domestic cargo dropped 0.2 percent to 22.06 million MT, while foreign cargo rose 2.2 percent to 32.83 million MT.
Container traffic also climbed 3.5 percent to 1.77 million twenty-foot equivalent units in the first quarter from 1.71 million TEUs in the same period last year. Domestic container traffic reached 725,199 TEUs while foreign container traffic hit 1.05 million TEUs.
Data showed that passenger traffic fell by 68 percent to 5.19 million in the first quarter from 16.58 million passengers in the same period last year.
Roll-on roll-off traffic also dropped to 1.61 million from 1.82 million last year.
The number of shipcalls in the first quarter totaled 85,140, down from 119,774 year earlier. Domestic shipcalls totaled 83,546 while foreign shipcalls reached 2,594.
PPA general manager Daniel Santiago earlier said the agency posted a 3-percent increase in net income in the first quarter despite the pandemic.
Santiago said the increase suggested that economic activities were rebounding from the effects of the pandemic.
PPA remitted P17.17 billion in dividends to the Treasury last year, a 108-percent increase compared to the full-term remittances during the previous administration that only totaled P8.270 billion for six years.