Coal, mineral products top Cebu imports

CEBU, Philippines - Coal and mineral products were identified as the most imported commodities at the Port of Cebu, a report from the Bureau of Customs (BoC-Cebu) revealed.

From January to September of this year, the record showed that a total of 919.2 million kilos of coal worth P4.1 billion while mineral products such as salt and ore were imported at a value of P11.9 billion with a volume of 96 million kilos.

Among the other imports include steel, petrol products, fertilizers, long grain rice, articles of stone, feeds, wheat and millet, machinery and mechanical appliances, plastic and rubber articles, and vehicles parts and accessories.

The top importer for the period was the power generating company Cebu Energy and Development Corp. (CEDC) with duties and taxes payment amounting to P516.6 million, accounting for 9.847 percent of BoC-Cebu’s collection.

CEDC is constructing clean coal-fired power plants with a capacity of 246 megawatts in Toledo City, Cebu, 82 megawatts of which will be operational by the end of this month.

The next top importer was Seaoil Philippines Inc., accounting for 7.211 percent or P378.3 million, followed by SteelAsia Manufacturing Corp., which made up three percent or P184.9 million, and Kepco SPC Power Corp. and Carmen Copper Corp. followed, earning for the BOC P172.5 million and P162.6 million, respectively.

Petronas Energy Phils. Inc. contributed P91 million while Taiheyo Cement Phils. Inc. contributed P90 million. Tridharma Marketing Corp. contributed P86 million and Galvaphil Inc. contributed P78.5 million. All four companies made up a little over one percent of the BOC’s collection.

On the other hand, BoC-Cebu reported an increase of 18.5 percent of its total duties and taxes collected from January to September of this year to P5.25 billion in the first eight months of this year, from P4.4 billion in the same period of last year.

Although there is an increase of the collection of taxes and duties this year, the figure however has failed the office’s actual projection to hit P5.35 from January to September.

Customs collection in other sub-port areas like Mactan, Mactan Economic Zones and Dumaguete City totaled P429 million, which accounts for 8.2 percent of the entire collection for BoC.

Early this year, BoC Port of Cebu district collector Ronnie Silvestre vowed to solve some of the exporters concerns within the BOC office in order to help exporters amid the challenging times.

Silvestre met with members of the PhilExport-Cebu to start its much closer relationship saying “We will try to come up with practical solutions immediately.”

The new Port of Cebu BOC district collector identified some solutions of the current concerns of exporters doing transactions with the BOC.

He said his office has already formulated solutions of some concerns so that exporters will establish smooth way in processing papers in the office, minimizing bureaucratic red tape.