Gov’t claims success in decongesting ports

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration has successfully reduced congestion at the Ports of Manila but authorities are expecting further surge in volumes with the upcoming long weekend and the Christmas season.

Juan Sta. Ana, general manager of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), said the cargo backlog and the number of empties currently clogging the Manila ports declined significantly.

Sta. Ana said the government would continue to implement mitigating measures to facilitate the de-clogging of the Manila ports that was caused by the day time truck ban imposed by the City Government of Manila last February.

“While almost all sectors admit that we are still months away from the normal level, we are now feeling the positive effects of the different mitigating measures put into place both by the private and government sectors but not enough to bring it back to pre-Manila day-time truck ban period,” he said.

He pointed out that the number of laden containers piled up at the Manila ports totaled 99,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) occupied about 105 percent of the yard of the ports composed of the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and the Manila South Harbor.

He added that the total of empty containers also reached a high of 22,000 TEUs as a result of the truck ban imposed by the City Government of Manila from February 24 to end May of this year.

However, he said the utilization rate at the MICT operated by port giant International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) and South Harbor of Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) has successfully been reduced to about 90 percent.

Despite reducing the congestion, Sta. Ana warned about the sudden uptick in yard utilization next week brought about by long weekend as well as the influx of cargoes due to the run-up to Christmas.

Sta. Ana said the government needs to clear about 8,175 TEUs to further bring down the yard utilization rate at the ports to about 80 percent.

Likewise, he reported that the number of empties inside the ports of Manila has been reduced to only 12,000 TEUs while held-up containers at foreign ports have likewise declined significantly to 20,000 TEUs from 37,000 TEUs two months ago.

“The reduction in the number of laden and empty containers suggests that productivity has increased dramatically resulting to better efficiency in handling cargoes and vessels at the Manila ports,” Sta. Ana said.

Major business groups like the Federation of Philippine Industries, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Joint Foreign Chamber, the Indian Foreign Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce have also agreed to withdraw their shipments during weekends.

Sta. Ana said the members of the Association of International Shipping Lines (AISL) have committed to extend their offices’ operating hours to accommodate other concerns of the cargo owners like payment of demurrage and other vessel-related fees.

ICTSI is putting up a container yard within the next 30 to 60 days to accommodate the expected surge in cargo volume due to the run-up to Christmas and also to house the other empty boxes being shipped out by the foreign shipping lines.

The company owned by port and gaming mogul Enrique Razon has started to ship out about 3,000 overstaying containers out of Manila and relocate it to Subic to further provide space for laden cargoes inside the MICT and South Harbor.

President Aquino is set to sign an Executive Order (EO) designating trade routes wherein trucks would be allowed to ply based on the recommendation of the Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion and the private sector.