THE Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) has assured that the country's ports will continue to be clogged-free amid the expected increase of cargos during the Yuletide season.
PPA General Manager Jay Daniel Santiago said his office expects cargo volume to further increase after registering an 11 percent improvement of total cargo throughput to 141.770 million metric tons (mmt) during the first seven months to July from 128.217 mmt a year ago.
Foreign cargo volume rose 12 percent to 86.302 mmt while domestic traffic recorded a 9 percent increase.
"Despite the surging numbers, we guarantee that our ports remain clogged-free and can accommodate the increasing cargo, passenger and shipcall volumes,” Santiago said.
Containerized cargo traffic, meanwhile, soar 9 percent for the period in review to 3.676 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 3.368 million TEUs last year wherein both foreign and domestic boxes registered a 9 hike hike to 2.203 million TEUs and 1.473 million TEUs, respectively.
The Manila International Container Terminal Services, Inc. remains as the country’s top handler of foreign boxes processing 1.241 million TEUs for the period in review followed by the Manila South Harbor handling 584,598 TEUs.
The North Harbor topped in terms of domestic boxes handled with 696,495 TEUs.
Shipcalls for the period, on the other hand, went up by 9 percent or from 234,468 in 2015 to 255,037 this year. Domestic and foreign shipcalls grew by 8.45 percent and 21.91 percent, respectively.
Currently, combined yard utilization at the two Manila ports is at 40 percent or approximately 32,600 TEUs are inside the terminals while yard productivity remains high ranging from 20-30 moves an hour.
The efficient yard management for both terminals is attributed partly to the truck Terminal Appointment Booking System (TABS) imposed recently that catapulted port efficiency by at least 96 percent.
Prior to the TABS, the average daily gateouts at the Manila ports is 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. (SDR/Sunnex)