Container vans parked in a seaport. (Stock image from Pixabay)
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said it has attained “healthy traffic” in the country’s international ports following efforts to clear its covered terminals of overstaying containers.
“There is no congestion nor backlog in all ports as the year starts,” PPA said in a statement Thursday.
Based on PPA’s February data, the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) recorded a 54.65 percent yard utilization rate, while Manila South Harbor reported 58.12 percent, much lower than December last year at 78 percent and 68 percent, respectively.
The agency said the yard utilization rate significantly lowered and improved after the holiday season. It explained that the yard utilization rate depends on “the cargo shippers and consignees’ withdrawal of their containers from the port.”
However, the PPA revealed that the container traffic inside the country’s ports remains high even after the number of containers overstaying at MICT dropped from 12,919 containers or 20,990 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) last December 2022 to 7,765 containers or 12480.75 TEUs in January this year.
“As much as possible, we try to accommodate them in PPA terminals, but we cannot accommodate them all. We can only accommodate empty containers [for a] number of days, or else our terminals will be filled with empty containers more than laden containers or containers that will arrive with goods inside,” General Manager Jay Santiago said in the same statement.
Nevertheless, Santiago remained optimistic about this year’s outlook with upcoming new projects and continuous efforts to clear the country’s ports of overstaying cargoes.
“We’re still optimistic. We are looking at a 7 to 8 percent growth this year as far as cargo traffic is concerned. As you know, we are a consumption economy, so even if a lot of other jurisdictions experience some form of recession, our country continues consuming, and as our population grows, consumption will eventually get higher and higher,” Santiago said.
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