CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The perceived crisis in the international shipping industry will have no adverse impact on the local maritime business amid warnings made by international experts of a slowdown in cargo trade, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said Friday.
Jessica Angeles, PPA-Port Management Office of Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental executive assistant and public information officer, said port operations and transactions will go on as usual.
Warnings
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a leading provider of country, risk and industry analysis, had predicted that the fall of Hanjin Shipping, the world’s seventh largest container line, could be a sign of a crisis developing in the shipping industry.
A glut in the number of ships carrying goods around the world is also an issue, according to Zvi Schreiber, chief executive officer of online logistics marketplace Freightos, in an interview with international network CNBC.
Overcapacity
“There has been a significant overcapacity, which is why rates have been so low and that’s why Hanjin went bankrupt in the first place,” Schreiber said in that
interview.
EIU said there will be an instant capacity reduction of 6-8 percent on trans-Pacific trade and a 5-6 percent reduction on the Asia-Europe trade as a result of the Hanjin collapse.
Domestic shipping
Ports have denied access to Hanjin vessels, amid fears that the company would not be able to pay the fees to dock and store its containers, leaving most of Hanjin’s ships stranded at sea.
Angeles said domestic ship calls have increased 13 percent from 13,361 in 2014 to 15,116 last year, while foreign ship calls rose 22 percent from 217 in 2014 to 265
in 2015.
In the region, domestic passenger traffic grew 12 percent from 2.2 million in 2014 to 2.4 million last year.
“It will have no direct effect unless their (Hanjin) ships dock in our ports,” said Angeles.
PPA-PMO operations cover the port of Cagayan de Oro and the terminal ports of Balingoan, Misamis Oriental, and in Benoni, Balbagon and Guinisiliban in Camiguin.