Container traffic in the Philippines increased by half in the 11 months to November last year, led by domestic activity, the Philippine Ports Authority said.
PPA noted that total container traffic during the period rose 53 percent to 9.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 5.94 million TEUs a year earlier.
Moreover, foreign container traffic rose 23.2 percent in container volume to 4.36 million TEUs from 3.54 million TEUs. Export containerized traffic went up by 37 percent while import container traffic posted a modest 10 percent increase, PPA noted.
Total cargo volume, on the other hand, registered an almost flat growth of 0.81 percent for the period to 227.31 million metric tons (MMT) from 225.5 MMT a year earlier. Domestic traffic went up by 2.3 percent while foreign cargoes registered flat growth.
The PPA also said passenger traffic went up as the volume in November increased by 4.31 percent to 64.87 million passengers from 62.19 million passengers in 2016.
“The positive outcome in traffic was propelled heavily by the continued reliance by the sea-traveling public on Ro-Ro vessels, fast craft and motorized bancas as primary mode of transportation for domestic interisland connectivity,” PPA general manager Jay Daniel R. Santiago said. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS