Cebu Ports Authority posts positive income last year

CEBU -- Despite the debilitating series of port strikes last year, the Cebu Ports Authority claims it still posted positive income last year.

Port authority chief of staff Romeo Alviso said operations, in fact, expanded, allowing the agency to rake in P310 million in revenues for last year.

This is a growth of about 1.9 percent from the 1998 total of P304 million, not bad considering that the authority only averages an annual growth rate of about three percent.

Alviso said domestic and foreign cargo traffic surprisingly increased last year despite the disruptions and seeming instability created by the port labor unrest.

There were at least three major strikes last year, with one lasting for over a month.

Alviso said more than 10 million metric tons of domestic cargoes landed in Cebu last year, surpassing the 1998 total by a million metric tons.

In terms of container van arrivals, the authority also recorded 79,000 boxes from foreign sources, an increase of 17,000 boxes, while domestic sources shot up to 327,000 containers from only 275,000 in 1998.

As a result of this expansion, the authority is presently contemplating the possible transfer of the Cebu International Port, said Alviso.

He said the present port does not have enough space to accommodate the projected rise in foreign cargo arrivals in the years ahead.

At present, foreign cargo operations represent 45 to 50 percent of port activities, although it accounts for 60 percent of the authority's annual revenues.

Alviso, however, declined to reveal the next site of the international port, fearing that any premature announcement may cause the real estate value of the area to shoot up.

He said some foreign cargoes are presently being unloaded at Iloilo or Cagayan de Oro ports due to the now constricted operations in Cebu. --