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By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
THE number of Filipinos traveling by sea grew at
a single-digit rate in the first four months of the year owing to
stiff competition with budget airlines, the Philippine Ports
Authority (PPA) said.
Ships and ferryboats, once the Filipino’s
most-preferred mode of domestic inter-island passenger transport,
are losing to airlines because airfare is cheaper.
Data from PPA showed that passenger traffic went
up by 4.25 percent to 14.57 million at end-April compared with 13.97
million in the same period last year. Domestic passengers accounted
for 99.94 percent of the total passenger volume during the period.
The PPA said cargo throughput during the period
dropped 8.84 percent to 45.90 million metric tons from 50.35 million
in the same period last year.
“The recorded decline is largely due to
non-inclusion of cargoes handled at the government and private ports
under the jurisdiction of Phividec, which were formerly accounted
for in the report of Cagayan de Oro port, “ PPA said.
The PPA added that domestic and foreign cargoes
both went down by 5.57 percent and 11.76 percent respectively.
The port authority attributed the decline in
domestic cargoes to the sluggish movements at the ports of South
Harbor, Batangas, Nasipit and Davao.
Export and import cargoes contracted 14.32
percent and 10.10 percent, respectively. The PPA said the volume of
imported wheat, cement, crude mineral, mineral fuel, iron and steel
handled at Harbor Center Terminal declined by 19.29 percent.
“A cut in the demand for nickle ores in the
foreign market contributed to the drop of export cargoes at [the]
ports of Nasipit and Surigao,” PPA said adding that exports of
fish products, and coco oil also declined during the period.
Container traffic, however, was up by 4.82
percent to 1.27 million twenty-footer equivalent units (TEU) as
against 1.21 million TEU in the same period last year.
Foreign container traffic increased by 10.58
percent to 775,060 TEU from 700,910 TEU last year, while domestic
TEU dropped to 494,310 from 510,113 over the same period.
Ship calls during the period were up by 4.24
percent to 4,226 year-on-year. Domestic and foreign ship calls rose
by 4.31 percent and 2.21 percent, respectively.
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