PH container traffic up 53% in Jan-Nov 2017

THE Philippines’ container traffic soared by 53 percent from January to November 2017 on the back of a strong shipping and trade environment and rising domestic demand, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) reported on Friday.

In a statement, PPA said it equivalent units ( TEUs) in the - lion in 2016.

“The increase in container traffic, particularly domestic box volume, somehow cushioned the decline in foreign overall volume,

million TEUs.

“Export containerized traffic went up by 37 percent, while import container traffic posted a modest 10- percent increase,” PPA said.

Total cargo volume grew slightly by 0.81 percent to 227.312 million metric tons (mmt) from 2016’s climbed by 2.3 percent, while foreign cargoes saw no growth.

expanded by 4.31 percent to - lion in 2016.

“The positive outcome in traffic was propelled by the continued reliance by the sea- traveling public on roll- on/ roll- off vessels, fast crafts and motorized bancas as primary modes of transportation for domestic inter- island connectivity,” PPA General Manager Jay Santiago said in the statement.

“In addition, the positive stream may have [ resulted from the] favorable response of the public to the government’s domestic ecotourism programs,” he added.

Meanwhile, shipcalls rose by 3.27 percent to 410,384 from shipcalls increased by 3.33 per ones climbed by 1.23 percent