State-run Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) yesterday reported the country’s cargo volume grew by 6.4 percent in the first nine months of the year driven by the growth in foreign cargo.
PPA data showed cargo throughput stood at 200 million metric tons (MMT) in January to September this year, higher than the 188 MMT cargo handled in the same period last year, driven by higher foreign cargo volume at127 MMT while domestic cargo stood at 72.4 MMT.
Container traffic rose by 11.8 percent to 5.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in the nine months compared with last year’s 4.92 million TEUs.
PPA attributed the growth to improved foreign container traffic which stood at 1.16 million TEUs during the period and domestic, 687,623 TEUs.
Sea passenger volume nine months into the year fell by 32.9 percent to 14.9 million from 21.3 million in the same period last year.
The passenger volume was significantly lower compared to the pre-pandemic level of 62.3 million passengers inthe nine months of 2019.
With the easing of travel restrictions, PPA however noted a 51.5 percent surge in passenger volume in the third quarter to 4.5 million from 2.97 million a year ago.
In a related development, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and PPA said they have completed 484 seaport projects since 2016 and are swiftly working on the completion of 101 more, which are currently underway.
