SECOND QUARTER 2005
PORT STATISTICAL REVIEW
Philippine economic growth as dampened by the continuous oil and consumer price hikes, sluggish economic trade and slowdown in the farm sector’s performance as was manifested during the first quarter of the year, carried over its impact for April to June 2005 as the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was posted at 4.8%, a much lower rate from 6.5% in the same quarter last year.
All three major production sectors listed positive but diminished strength in the second quarter. Services, though at a much abated pace, continued to lead the economy as it grew by 6.1% from 8.1% increase last year. Industry recorded a 4.6 percent rise from 5.3% performance a year ago. By posting only 1.8 percent growth compared to last year’s 4.2 percent, Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry (AFF) strongly contributed to the lackluster in the economy.
Services, leading the economy at 48.9 percent, equivalent to almost half of the total GDP, listed a 2.93 percentage points to GDP growth. Except for Finance which managed two-digit acceleration, all services sub-sectors reported decelerated pattern.
Industry, listing a 34 percent share of the total GDP garnered a 1.58 percentage points to GDP improvement. Again, decrease in growth trend was reached with the exemption of Mining and Quarrying pointing a double-digit strength as the effects of the Mining Law started to be felt.
Lastly, AFF with a 17.2 percent contribution to total GDP, was assessed to be a 0.32 percentage points of the GDP expansion. The sector’s surplus was driven by the Fishery, Other Crops, Banana and Palay.
Water transport sub-sector showed a balanced improvement in its performances, as measured by standard indicators, i.e.; cargo throughput, container traffic, passenger number and vessel traffic. Sea commerce activities were maintained at a conservative momentum by the continued change in the mode of cargo handling; from conventional form to containerized form, particularly, foreign goods, as preferred by the various sectors, private and government. The means of travel, through ferry vessels, and RO-RO transport, though at an irregularly slower rate, continued to register increments.
QUARTERLY SUMMARY FIGURES
(Nationwide Ports)
Domestic ---------------------------- 20.46
Foreign ------------------------------ 19.85
Import ------ 13.54
Export ------ 6.31
Domestic ----------------------------- 432,534
Foreign ------------------------------- 516,428
Import ------ 265,818
Export ------ 250,610
Domestic ----------------------------- 83,367
Foreign ------------------------------- 2,629
Disembarked ------------------------ 8.23
Embarked ---------------------------- 7.95
CARGO TRAFFIC
The closing of the second quarter 2005 covering April to June, added up its total cargo throughput in the ports nationwide at 40.17 million metric tons, giving a three percent upmark from the previous year’s level of 39.06 million metric tons. Monitoring various modern harbors equipped with facilities, the five (5) Port District Offices (PDOs) managed fairly in the following succession: PDO Manila/Northern Luzon handled 42 percent of the total cargo haul; 19 percent incoming and outgoing commodities were covered in PDO Southern Luzon. PDOs Northern Mindanao and Visayas simultaneously accommodated cargo tonnages equivalent to 17 percent and 13 percent, respectively, and the remaining nine percent was handled in PDO Southern Mindanao.
By Port Management Office, the busiest ports which were able to manage the flow of various goods, in percentage share of a high 13 percent and a low 3 percent were as follows: Batangas, Limay, Cagayan de Oro, North Harbor, MICT, South Harbor, Davao, San Fernando, Pulupandan, Ormoc, Legazpi and Iligan. Summing up, a total of 33 million metric tons or an equivalent 82% of the total cargo throughput was carried in and out of these twelve busy ports.
By mode of trade, domestic throughput, totaling 20.32 million metric tons posted a regress of 4% over last year’s tonnage of 21.16 million metric tons. Somehow, remarkable tonnages translated into 4%, 5%, 7%, 9%, 10%, and 16%, representing 14.07 million metric tons or sixty nine percent of the domestic haul were either discharged or loaded in the berths of Davao, Tacloban, Pulupandan, Legazpi, Cagayan de Oro, Limay, Batangas, South Harbor and North Harbor. Substantial volume of inter-island commodities, commonly shipped in and out, mostly in bulk or containerized form in the Philippine waterways were: refined petroleum products, corn, animal feeds, palay & rice, fruits & vegetables, iron & steel, crude minerals, plywood & veneer, lumber, and logs.
Foreign trade, with the quarter end summation of 19.85 million metric tons registered a remarkable gain of 11% from the same period level of 17.90 million metric tons. In the same manner, assorted cargoes, as carried in and out of the ports of MICT, Batangas, Cagayan de Oro, Limay, South Harbor, Davao and San Fernando in percentage distribution, were all considered in their peak at 19%, 18%, 14%, 13%, 8%, 6% and 5%, respectively. Imported and exported goods, greatly carried in different packaging, as vans, bulk, or breakbulk were: metalliferous ores and scrap, crude minerals, refined petroleum products, chemicals, copra, crude petroleum, chemicals, fertilizer, and palay & rice.
A great majority of the total tonnage, or 79% percent were handled in the government ports. The rest passed through private ports.
CONTAINER TRAFFIC
For the second quarter end in review, total container haul of 944,018 TEUs listed a negligible 0.43 percent loss against the previous year’s total of 948,117 TEUs. Except for the ports under the port district office of Manila/Northern Luzon, all ports under the four (4) PDOs registered a decrement in the number of containerized packages handled for the period under review as compared to the same period in 2004. On the other hand, the ports of Pulupandan, Zamboanga and Cagayan de Oro all listed acceleration in the number of containers handled at a rate of 22%, 8% and 4% respectively.
Considering the national summation of container traffic, there were several ports that joined Manila-based container carrying ports to comprise the majority ninety one percent of the total. In descending order: Davao – 7%, Cagayan de Oro - 6%, General Santos – 3% and Iloilo – 2%.
Packed volume of goods were heavily shipped, locally and internationally. Labeled as the prime carrying port for domestic load, North Harbor serviced some thirty four percent of the domestic TEU total of 687,425 or an equivalent 16% of the overall count. Likewise, Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), tagged as the highest container carrying terminal, for both the overall TEUs and foreign count, hauled a hefty 33 percent and a majority 61 percent, respectively. South Harbor capped the second lead in both the domestic and foreign container carrying capacity at a load of 15 percent and 31 percent, respectively. These percentages summed up to a sound 24% of the total TEUs for the quarter end in review.
Government ports handled the majority ninety six percent of the TEU share and the rest were tugged in the private ports.
SHIPCALLS
Total shipcalls for April to June was manifested at 85,092 vessels. This figure registered a slim one percent increment over the 84,079 shipcalls last year. Domestic calls comprised ninety seven percent of the total vessel number, while foreign calls represented a meager three percent of the total shipcalls. With the majority calls of ferry vessels, ports under PDO Visayas garnered the topmost list of 33 percent; followed by PDO Southern Luzon ports with 26 percent vessel entries. PDOs Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao and Manila/Northern Luzon followed the lead at 17%, 15%, and 8%, respectively.
As compared to the previous year’s figures, increment in total shipcalls were manifested in the ports of Dumaguete, Davao, Legazpi, San Fernando, General Santos, MICT, Pulupandan and Batangas at a high 22 percent to a low 6 percent. By domestic count, the ports of Pulupandan, Batangas, General Santos, Davao, and Dumaguete successively posted an upgrading ranging from 7 percent up to 20 percent. Foreign calls, on the other hand, registered an uptick in its performance as computed in the ports of Davao, MICT, South Harbor and North Harbor at a convincing 5% to a highly significant 58%.
Seventy percent of the overall shipcalls were logged at the government ports, while private ports registered the remaining thirty percent share of the vessel calls.
PASSENGER TRAFFIC
At the end of the second quarter, some 15,974,283 million passengers, comprised of 8,132,312 million disembarking passengers and 7,841,971 million embarking passengers, traveled to and from Philippine ports. These figures all posted diminishing growth of 7%, 5%, and 9% from the year-on-year level of passenger counts, in the same order, 17,126,380 million passengers, 8,537,267 million disembarking and 8,589,113 million embarking passengers.
Summing up to 79 percent of the total passenger statistics, the three busiest Port District Offices were: Visayas, Southern Luzon and Northern Mindanao. However, the cancellation of ferry trips and/or closure/stoppage of operations or shift of travel via land in the succeeding individual ports posted a marked six percent to forty two percent decreases from the total last year: Nasipit, Dumaguete, Surigao, Legazpi, North Harbor and Cotabato. Inversely, the most number of commuters were manifested in the following passenger servicing ports of Batangas, Zamboanga, North Harbor, Calapan, South Harbor, Iloilo, Matnog, Cagayan de Oro, Tubigon and Tagbilaran. Combined passengers in these areas represented 41 percent of the total number of passengers.
Government ports ferried a majority 82 percent of the cumulative passenger count while private ports accommodated the rest.