PPA moves to further ease port congestion

AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Philippine Ports Authority has announced added measures to ease congestion in the Port of Manila starting this month, ahead of the busy Christmas season.

A memorandum dated Nov. 3 showed that all ad hoc vessels calling at the Port of Manila including those presently on queue would be berthed at South Harbor or Subic Bay Freeport.

The PPA said ad hoc vessels referred to vessels designated or arranged to call at the port of Manila for a specific purpose and not on a regular basis.

Moreover, the PPA said a so-called dual caller vessel would be directed by the agency to berth at South Harbor or Manila International Container Terminal upon its arrival at pilot boarding station.

A dual-caller ship refers to a vessel whose ports of loading and/ or unloading are both South Harbor and MICT, the PPA said.

“This measure will reduce the number of vessels waiting at anchorage. It will also prevent double calls of vessels. Instead of calling at the two ports for some of the vessel operators, they will call now only at one port,” the agency said.

Yard utilization increased to about 90 percent during the All Saints’ Day/All Souls’ Day weekend from mid-80 percent as of Oct. 31, an agency spokesman said.

The PPA noted that the arrangement was temporary and would only be valid through Nov. 30. The circular was addressed to shipping companies like International Container Terminal Services Inc., Asian Terminals Inc. and the Association of International Shipping Lines Inc.

Recently, the Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion (CCPC) said that efficiency at the Port of Manila had increased after the City of Manila lifted its truck ban.

“While yard utilization remains relatively high, productivity and efficiency are slowly getting back to normal in both Manila ports,” according to the cluster that also includes the PPA, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, the Metro Manila Development Authority and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.

The Philippines recently slipped in the World Bank’s latest “Ease of Doing Business” report partly due to the port congestion issue.

With the new methodology implemented by the World Bank, the Philippines is now 95th in the world from a revised rank of 86th last year.

“Trading across borders became more difficult” when the city of Manila issued an ordinance restricting truck traffic in Manila, according to the World Bank.