Port activities moving back to prepandemic vibrancy–regulator

The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) saw its net income rise by 9 percent in the first half on the back of better revenues from concession and storage fees, among others.

PPA earned P5.02 billion in the first semester, which was higher than P4.61 billion it had booked in the same period last year.

On Wednesday, the agency reported that its net income was now only 13 percent down from prepandemic level. Its bottom-line figure was slashed by as much as 50 percent in 2020 at the height of the pandemic lockdown measures.

In addition, the PPA’s six-month net income was 24 percent more than P4.06-billion target.

Gross revenues in January to June climbed 14.28 percent to P9.44 billion from last year’s P8.26 billion. Meanwhile, expenses grew by 14 percent to P4.41 billion during the period.

‘Steady pace’ of recovery

PPA noted that concession fees and other income had grown by over sixfold in the first half while storage fees were up 55 percent. Revenues from domestic dockage improved by 28 percent.

Revenues from lay-up operations and interest income, meanwhile, fell by 93 percent and 87 percent, respectively.

In the last 18 months, PPA observed that it had registered an average revenue growth of 9 percent, seeing this as a “steady pace moving toward prepandemic levels.”

The total cargo throughput slid by 1.46 percent to 124.49 million metric tons (MMT) in the first half from 127.34 MMT in the same period last year.

Containerized cargo traffic was up 2.66 percent to 3.73 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) on the back of 6.14-percent growth in imported boxed cargos. Domestic box volume, however, slipped 1.83 percent to 1.41 million TEUs.

Passenger volume rose 144 percent amid the return of domestic tourism with the reopening of the borders.

Last month, PPA was set to do an operations review to bring down shipping costs amid the high fuel prices.

The regulator said it would look at “statutory and regulatory costs being levied by the PPA as well as indirect costs related to the efficiency and productivity of the ports.”

PPA also intends to meet with other port stakeholders to tackle how to utilize facilities in high-volume ports such as those in Manila, Batangas, Cagayan de Oro and Iloilo.