The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said on Sunday the country’s cargo traffic volume expanded by 10.58 percent in the first quarter of this year, driven by increases in both domestic and foreign cargo volumes.
PPA data showed that cargo throughput in the first quarter totaled 65.8 million metric tons (MMT), compared with 59.5 MMT in the corresponding period last year.
Domestic cargo rose 10 percent to 28.3 MMT from 25.7 MMT in the same period last year; foreign cargo grew by 10.6 percent to 37.5 MMT from 33.9 MMT.
Domestic cargo exports accounted for 10.71 MMT, while imports reached 26.8 MMT.
Container throughput grew by 13 percent in the first quarter, reaching 2.04 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), up from 1.8 million TEUs in the year-earlier period.
Growth was fueled by continued increases in foreign and domestic container volumes.
Foreign container traffic expanded by 12 percent to 1.3 million TEUs in the first quarter from 1.16 million TEUs in the same period last year, while domestic container volume increased by 9 percent to 699,516 TEUs from 642,935 TEUs.
Ship calls increased by 3 percent to 153,867 in the first quarter, compared with 149,224 last year.
However, RoRo (roll-on/roll-off) traffic declined by 7 percent to 2.6
million from 2.8 million in the comparative periods.
PPA said passenger traffic fell 2.3 percent in the first quarter, reaching 18.4 million, compared with 18.8 million in the same period last year. This total included 131,687 cruise passengers in 57 cruise ship calls. PPA did not reply to MBI follow-through query on the passenger decline.
In the first quarter of this year, the PPA completed P2.4 billion in port expansions across Luzon and Visayas. Key projects included the expansion of Capinpin, Romblon, San Andres, Mauban, Salomague, and Limay ports.
In the Visayas, the PPA completed a P493.3 million development at the Port of Tagbilaran in Bohol in February 2025.
Other projects scheduled for completion this year were the Banago Port Improvement Project in Negros Occidental, along with cruise ship port developments in Coron, Palawan; Buruanga, Aklan; and Mambajao, Camiguin.
The PPA said these initiatives aimed to boost the country’s capacity to meet rising demand from international cruise ships.
