Shipping contracts further on economic crisis, A(H1N1)

THE cargo and passenger shipping industry contracted in the first four months of the year due to the global financial crisis and the Influenza A(H1N1) scare, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said.

Data from the port authority showed that cargo volume from January to April contracted by 0.88 percent to 45 million metric tons (MT) from last year’s 46.35 million MT.

“The decline in cargo may be attributed to the accumulated decrease in the shipment of cargoes since January this year due to economic slowdown,” PPA said.

Of the total, domestic cargo dropped 1.45 percent to 22.71 million MT from 23.04 million MT at end-April. Foreign cargo registered 23.22 million MT, down by 0.32 percent from 23.30 million MT.

The PPA said export cargo, declined by 17.45 percent to 7.22 million MT during the period, dragged down the total foreign cargo performance.

Import cargo, however, grew by 9.96 percent to 16.02 million metric tons.

The agency said the decline in export cargo was a proof of the “continuous effect of the global crisis to the export industry.”

PPA said the significant drop in cargo volume in the first four months was observed in the South Harbor, which recorded a decrease of 29.5 percent while the Manila International Container Terminal’s (MICT) cargo volume dropped 27.97 percent.

The combined cargo volume handled at MICT, which is operated by International Container Terminal Services Inc., and South Harbor of Asian Terminal Inc., account for 30.54 percent of the total volume. The remaining 69.46 percent represent the share of other government ports nationwide.

The number of passenger traffic also dipped by 1.32 percent to 14.55 million from January to April from 14.75 million passengers in the same period last year.

Of the total passengers, 14.54 million were domestic travelers and 12,833 foreign. Both were down by 1.30 percent and 20.17 percent, respectively.

“[This is] mainly due to cheaper alternative offered by airlines and most recently due to the Influenza A(H1N1) Virus scare,” PPA said.

Containerized cargo fell 3.20 percent to 1.19 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) during the four-month period compared with 1.23 million TEU in the same period last year.

Foreign container traffic contracted by 6.56 percent to 708,98, while domestic TEU rose by 2.21 percent to 482,611.

Ship calls during the period were down by 2.12 percent to 100,775 for at end-April. Both domestic and foreign ship calls fell by 2.12 percent to 97,776 and 2,999, respectively.–Darwin G. Amojelar, Manila Times