PPA profit up despite port congestion

MANILA, Philippines - State-run Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) managed to post a double-digit increase in profits amid the congestion experienced at the ports of Manila brought about by the truck ban imposed by the city government of Manila in February last year.

PPA general manager Juan Sta. Ana reported that the agency’s net income grew 15 percent to P4.26 billion last year from P3.7 billion in 2013, exceeding its P3.67-billion target by 16 percent or P582 million.

On the other hand, gross revenues rose 13.5 percent to P12.57 billion from P11.07 billion.

The increase was due to the 25-percent jump in port revenues to P12.46 billion from P9.99 billion in 2013, exceeding the full-year target of P10.41 billion by 20 percent.

“The considerable increases in almost all aspects of the revenue generation process of the agency can be attributed primarily to the increase in traffic volume at the ports despite the congestion issue involving the Manila ports,” Sta. Ana said.

Philippine cargo volume went up by 4.6 percent to 211.2 million metric tons last year from 201.9 million metric tons in 2013 despite the congestion at the Manila International Container Terminal of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) and Manila South Harbor of Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI).

Data showed that cargo shipped out of the Philippines grew 7.4 percent to 133.29 million metric tons (MT) last year as imports increased by 11.3 percent to 67.56 million MT while exports inched up by 3.77 percent to 65.73 million MT.

On the other hand, cargo shipped within the Philippines was almost flat at 77.91 million MT last year from 77.86 million metric tons in 2013.

The PPA reported that container volume went up by four percent to 5.43 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) as foreign container traffic rose 3.4 percent to 3.29 million TEUs while domestic container traffic went up 4.9 percent to 2.14 million TEUs.

Utilization rate at the ports of Manila is back to normal levels at 76.5 percent exactly a year after the city government of Manila imposed a truck ban that practically limited the movement of cargoes in and out of the ports during nighttime only.

As of end-June last year, the number of laden containers piled up at the Manila ports totaled 85,000 TEUs which occupied about 104 percent of the yard of the ports while the total of empty containers also reached a high of 22,000 TEUs.

PPA said the Fund Management Income (FMI) fell 16 percent to P103.21 million last year from P122.50 million in 2013.

Total expenses went up by 9.7 percent to P6.47 billion from P5.89 billion as operating expenditures increased by 8.9 percent to P6.83 billion from P6.27 billion.