The country’s cargo traffic volume rose slightly by 1.5 percent in the first quarter this year as compared to the same period last year, driven by growth in foreign cargo volume, according to Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) data.
PPA data showed that cargo throughput in January to March stood at 55 million metric tons (MMT), higher than last year’s 54.2 MMT.
Domestic cargo volume was flat at 22 MMT in the first quarter, while foreign cargo was up by 2.5 percent to 33 MMT from 32.2 MMT in the first quarter last year.
Container traffic reported an increase of 5.9 percent to 1.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first quarter from 1.7 million TEUs a year ago. This was attributed to growth in foreign container traffic by 6 percent to 1.05 million TEUs in the first quarter from 987,556 last year.
The domestic container traffic was slightly down to 725,100 TEUs from 731,768 TEUs during the period.
Passenger volume tumbled by 69 percent to 5.2 million in the first quarter as compared to last year’s 16.7 million passengers, due to the community quarantine imposed in various parts of the country to control the spread of the coronavirus.
Jay Santiago, PPA general manager, had said PPA’s profit grew 3 percent in the first quarter to P2.58 billion from P2.5 billion a year ago.
Santiago expects to sustain the growth for the year as the country starts to recover from the adverse impact of the pandemic.
Cargo traffic volume is projected to increase by 7 percent this year versus last year and is seen to return to pre-pandemic levels in the next three years.
Last year, cargo volume fell by 14 percent to 230 MMT from 266.4 MMT in 2019 due to the slowdown in local and foreign trade, PPA said.
