|
By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
SHIPPING companies are forced to reduce
passenger capacity to stay afloat amid rising crude prices and
creeping competition from budget airline carriers, the Maritime
Industry Authority (Marina) said.
“They are feeling the pinch ... [and] coming
up with ways to avoid bringing down the company’s financials,”
Vicente Suazo, administrator of Marina, told reporters.
Suazo said most of the shipping companies are
reducing passenger capacity and shifting into cargo to ease the
expense of tending to passengers on board.
The Marina official said the Negros Navigation
Co. plans to acquire more vessels for cargo, but the company will
maintain its passenger operation, “whatever [it has] right now.”
Meanwhile, the Aboitiz Transport System Corp. (ATSC)
since last year has shifted its focus to freight business as the
passenger segment’s revenue contribution to the company went down
to 23 percent from 35 percent.
Aboitiz Transport has been converting unused
passage capacity to meet the demand for its freight or ro-ro
service.
Ro-ro refers to the roll-on, roll-off sea
transport business that the government has been aggressively pushing
to cut the cost of inter-island transport of goods.
The company’s freight business is hitting
about 96 percent capacity utilization year round. However, its
passage revenue in the first quarter of the year dropped 3 percent
to P617.6 million from P636.9 million last year owing to a
44-percent reduction in passenger ferry capacity.
ATSC’s freight revenues, on the other hand,
increased 23 percent to P1.9 billion in 2008.
Data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA)
showed that passenger traffic went up by only 4.25 percent to 14.57
million from January to April compared to 13.97 million in the same
period last year. Domestic passengers accounted for 99.94 percent of
total passenger volume during the period
The PPA said cargo throughput during the period
dropped 8.84 percent to 45.90 million metric tons (MT) from 50.35
million MT in the same period last year.
In addition, container traffic 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 went up by
4.24 percent to 4,226 compared to last year’s figure. Domestic and
foreign ship calls both rose by 4.31 percent and 2.21 percent,
respectively.
|
