Manila port summit to tackle solutions to congestion

MANILA, Philippines–Government agencies and private stakeholders in the operations of the Port of Manila will meet Monday in a bid to seek enforceable solutions to congestion in the country’s primary port once and for all.

The Port Users Confederation (PUC) composed of importers, exporters and other business groups dealing regularly with the Port of Manila is spearheading the first Port Summit at the Manila Hotel which is expected to be attended by senior government officials and business leaders.

It will tackle specific issues regarding cargo handling, traffic management, customs procedures, antismuggling initiatives, shipping lanes regulation and ports development.

Noemi Saludo, PUC chair emeritus, said that while certain actions, such as the indefinite lifting of Manila’s extended truck ban by Mayor Joseph Estrada, as well as policies issued by the Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion, have contributed to the easing of the port’s utilization rate, more needed to be done to fix the problem.

She pointed in particular to the problem of empty freight containers getting stuck in the ports, a result of trade imbalance as the country’s imports exceed its exports.

“This is the responsibility of the shipping lines that own the container and they should pull it out [of] there. But right now, it is just lost space,” Saludo said.

She added that while the problem of port congestion has been around for many years, it was made worse by the extended truck ban imposed by the Manila government earlier this year.

The Philippine Ports Authority said that utilization of the container yards at the Port of Manila went up to 100 percent around September this year at the height of the implementation of Manila’s truck ban. Since then, however, utilization has decreased to around 95 percent. Saludo now estimates that the current rate is around 80 percent.