Ports Authority sees modest 7% cargo volume growth in 2021

The Philippine Ports Authority is seeing a modest rise in cargo volume in the country’s sea ports this year as it admits that it will be difficult to recover to pre-pandemic levels amid lingering mobility restrictions due to COVID-19.

In a virtual press conference on Wednesday, PPA general manager Jay Santiago said that cargo volume declined to 230.44 million metric tons (MMT) in 2020 from 266.42 MMT in 2019 on the back of a challenging trade environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the economy gradually reopens, Santiago said that cargo volume will see a recovery in 2021.

“This year, we are looking at a cargo growth rate of about 7% to 246.70 MMT,” he said.

Also, the PPA chief said the cargo volume growth forecast is consistent with the projections of the Duterte administration’s economic managers’ that the Philippine economy will see a recovery this year after it saw a 9.5% contraction in 2020.

For this year, the economic team is expecting the economy to rebound to 6.5% to 7.5% range as business activities resume.

But when asked when will cargo volume return to pre-pandemic levels, Santiago said “medyo malayo-layo tayo makahabol sa pre-pandemic levels... bumagsak ang cargo level natin.”

He added that for 2022, the PPA is only seeing 1% cargo volume growth to 249.17 MMT and 3% growth in 2023 to 256.29 MMT.

The Ports chief said these are “optimistically conservative” projections given that the COVID-19 is still present.

“Ang paglago ng ekonomiya ang magpapalaki ng cargo traffic,” Santiago said.

As for passenger traffic, the PPA is projecting it to grow by 1% to 2% from 2021 to 2023.

In particular, Santiago said passenger traffic will reach 25.84 million this year from 24.79 million in 2020, but still a far-cry from the 83.72 million passengers recorded in 2019.

Passenger traffic is seen to hit 26.10 million in 2022 and 26.79 million in 2023. —LBG, GMA News