19 JANUARY 2018, MANILA—Philippine container traffic went up drastically in the first 11 months of the year anchored on robust shipping and trade atmosphere and heightened domestic demand.
The increase in container traffic, particularly domestic box volume, somehow cushioned the decline in foreign overall volume, specifically export traffic.
Latest data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) showed that total container traffic for the period in review inched up by 53% to 9.084 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 5.940 million TEUs a year earlier.
Foreign container traffic, on the other hand, registered a 23.25% increase in container volume to 4.361 million TEUs from 3.538 million TEUs wherein export containerized traffic went up by 37% while import container traffic posted a modest 10% increase.
Total cargo volume, on the other hand, registered an almost flat growth of 0.81% for the period in review to 227.312 million metric tons (mmt) from 225.495 mmt a year earlier. Domestic traffic only went up by 2.3% while foreign cargoes registered flat growth.
Passenger traffic, meanwhile, continues to improve as the volume registered in November increased by 4.31% to 64.874 million passengers from 62.192 million passengers in 2016.
“The positive outcome in traffic was propelled heavily by the continued reliance by the sea-traveling public on Ro-Ro vessels, fast crafts, and motorized bancas as primary mode of transportation for domestic inter-island connectivity,” PPA General Manager Jay Daniel R. Santiago said.
“In addition, the positive stream in passenger traffic serviced at the ports may have also been the result of favorable response of the public to the government’s domestic eco-tourism programs encouraging leisure inter-island Ro-Ro travel to tourist destinations such as Siargao, Puerto Galera, Bohol, Coron, El Nido, and other emerging tourism sites,” Santiago added.
Shipcalls likewise increased by 3.27% to 410,384 from 397,397 calls a year earlier wherein domestic shipcalls posted a 3.33% increase to 398,770 calls while foreign ships increased by 1.23% to 11,615 shipcalls.
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