Ports cargo volume up in Jan-Oct

MANILA, Philippines - The volume of cargo handled by the country’s ports grew six percent in the first 10 months of 2016, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said.

In a statement, the PPA said cargo throughout of the country’s ports rose to 198.441 million metric tons (mmt) for the 10-month period last year from 187.209 mmt handled in the same period of 2015.

The volume of foreign cargo reached 124.581 mmt, 8.58 percent higher than the 114.732 mmt posted a year earlier.

Imports increased 13.31 percent, while exports climbed 3.24 percent.

Volume of domestic cargo, meanwhile, went up slightly to 73.86 mmt from 72.48 mmt handled in 2015.

Container traffic for the 10-month period last year grew to 5.18 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) as compared to the 4.78 million TEUs processed in the same period of 2015.

The PPA said the Manila International Container Terminal handled the largest volume of containerized cargo from January to October with 1.79 million TEUs.

This was followed by South Harbor with 866,674 TEUs and Batangas with 127,160 TEUs.

For domestic containerized cargo, North Harbor continued to have the largest share with 1.02 million TEUs handled in the 10-month period.

The PPA said passengers using the Philippine ports are also on the rise due to increasing cruise ship arrivals.

Domestic passengers reached 53.71 million from January to October, up 8.31 percent from the same period in 2015.

Foreign passengers also grew 22.36 percent year-on-year to 83,283 as of end-October.