PPA sustains growth profit in Q1

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) leaned on the recovery of trade and travel to pre-pandemic levels to close the first quarter with a profit of more than P3 billion.

The PPA sustained its recovery trend in the first quarter with net income growing by 10 percent to P3.25 billion from P2.96 billion a year ago.

Broken down, revenue surged by 16 percent to P5.14 billion from P4.44 billion, while expenses rose by 28 percent to P1.89 billion from P1.48 billion.

The PPA gained from the rebound of cargo and travel activities as shown by the 16-percent surge in service and business income to P5.13 billion. For the year, the agency expects port volumes to breach the pre-pandemic levels.

PPA general manager Jay Santiago said cargo volume may rise by eight percent with the return to normalcy of supply chains. Further, he sees passenger traffic growing by 20 percent due to the resurgence of travel activities now that border restrictions are lifted.

The PPA will try to stay in the green this year even as it expects revenue cuts along the way as it moves to bring down the cost of cargo handling.

The agency will bank on the dozens of port management offices under its supervision to deliver the revenue needed to cover for losses arising from the planned reduction in cargo fees.

Likewise, the PPA in March opened three new passenger terminal buildings for ports situated in Southern Tagalog and Bicol Region in line with the strategy to expand operations.

On March 30, the PPA opened the passenger terminal building of the Port of Calapan in Oriental Mindoro, the largest of its kind in the country. The facility can handle as many as 3,500 travelers at any given time, more than double its previous capacity of 1,600.

Prior to this, the PPA inaugurated the new port operations building for the Port of Coron and Port of Masbate. The agency renovated both terminals to expand their capacity for future demand.

Apart from this, the PPA plans to complete several digitalization programs this year, with the goal of minimizing friction expenses that add up to logistics cost.

Last year the PPA raised its profit by 15 percent to P7.96 billion from P6.9 billion in 2021 after posting a record high P20.5 billion in revenue fueled by the recovery of cargo and passenger volumes.