PHL ports see 1.4% rise in passengers, 4.7% increase in cargo volume

The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) reported Wednesday that the number of passengers who passed through Philippine sea ports increased by 1.4 percent while the volume of cargo shipped in and out through these ports went up by 4.7 percent in the first nine months of the year.   Data released by the PPA showed the number of passengers reached 37.935 million from January to September this year or 573,290 more than the 37.362 million passengers serviced in the same period last year.   Broken down, the number of domestic passengers inched up by 1.55 percent to 37.899 million while the number of foreign passengers fell by 8.6 percent to 35,856.   “While there is some improvement in passenger volume, competition from budget airline carriers offering reduced promo fares continue to persist and has been responsible for the continuing shift of domestic sea-based travelers to air transport,” the PPA said.   It also cited the occasional stoppage of operations of some ferry vessels and trip cancellations brought about by inclement weather which affected passenger volume.   Likewise the agency reported that cargo volume shipped in and out of the Philippines reached 140.209 million metric tons from January to September this year compared to 133.86 million metric tons in the same period last year.   The PPA said foreign cargo shipped in and out of the Philippines went up by 8.82 percent to 85.347 million metric tons from 78.427 million metric tons while cargo that moved within the country slipped 1.08 percent to 54.862 million metric tons from 55.432 million metric tons.   The agency attributed the increase to the substantial rise in cargoes in 17 port management offices (PMOs) with Puerto Princesa recording the highest increase with 47.13 percent followed by Nasipit with 32.14 percent.   The PPA explained that the increase were enough to wipe out the decline in other PMOs including the 33.37 percent drop in throughout in South Harbor, the 32.28 percent decline in Cotabato, the 20.72 percent drop in Ormoc, and the 9.21 percent reduction in Iloilo.   On the other hand, the PPA reported that the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) remained the country’s main international gateway as it accounted for 10.6 percent of the total cargo volume with 14.864 million metric tons followed by North Harbor with 7.2 percent or 10.043 million metric tons.   In terms of containerized cargo, the PPA said volume increased by 5.1 percent to 3.83 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first nine months of the year from 3.645 million TEUs in the same period last year.   Latest data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed that the country’s merchandise exports grew 7.2 percent to $40.067 billion in the first nine months of the year from $37.376 billion in the same period last year while imports inched up by 0.1 percent to $40.769 billion from $40.731 billion in the first eight months of the year.   Economic managers through the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) sees the country’s domestic output as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) expanding between five percent and six percent this year. The GDP growth zoomed to 6.1 percent in the first half of the year. — DVM, GMA News