MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) yesterday gave assurance the country’s ports are ready to handle an increase in volume of cargo for the Christmas season.

Citing latest data on cargo volume as well as containerized cargo traffic, PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago said in a statement yesterday, the country’s ports are ready to accommodate the anticipated increase in cargo volume for Christmas.

Latest data from the PPA showed total cargo throughput grew 11 percent to 141.770 million metric tons (MT) this year from 128.217 million MT in the same period last year.

Foreign cargo volume inched up 12 percent year-on-year to 86.302 million MT, while domestic cargo shipments recorded a nine percent year-on-year increase.

Containerized cargo traffic, meanwhile, climbed nine percent to 3.676 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) as of end-July this year from 3.368 million TEUs last year.

Higher containerized cargo traffic was seen as both foreign and domestic boxes registered a nine percent year-on-year hike to 2.203 million TEUs and 1.473 million TEUs, respectively.

The Manila International Container Terminal remains the country’s top handler of foreign boxes as it processed 1.241 million TEUs for the January to July period.

This was followed by the Manila South Harbor which handled 584,598 TEUs.

The Manila North Harbor meanwhile, topped the list for domestic boxes as it handled 696,495 TEUs.

At present, the combined yard utilization at the international ports of Manila is at 40 percent with approximately 32,600 TEUs inside the terminals, while yard productivity remains high at 20 to 30 moves an hour.

PPA attributed the efficient yard management to the Terminal Appointment Booking System (TABS), an electronic platform for booking the pickup and delivery of containers in the two international ports of Manila.

The online system is designed to optimize the entry and exit of cargo to and from the ports.

Prior to the TABS, the average daily gate outs at the Manila ports is at 4,500 to 5,000 TEUs as compared to the post-TABS imposition of 7,000 to 7,500 TEUs daily gate outs.

“With this kind of yard utilization, we can say that Philippine ports are ready to handle the expected increase in the volume of cargo due to the run-up to Christmas,” Santiago said.

Source: www.philstar.com/business