The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
There would be no repeat during the holiday season of the tight port traffic of 2014 when container cargoes were stranded at the Manila ports that mainly resulted from the Manila city government’s strict truck ban, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said.
PPA General Manager Jay Daniel Santiago said port utilization in Manila remains healthy at the start of the fourth quarter of this year, providing enough space for the delivery of cargoes intended for the Christmas season.
The yard utilization at the MICT and MSH is at 60.12 percent, which is 20 percent below their optimum level of 80 percent.
Productivity at the Manila ports namely, the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), Manila South Harbor (MSH) and the Manila North Port (MNP) continue to be robust.
“It is also worthy to note that both terminals posted at least a 10 percent increase in their respective productivity as of end September, suggesting a fully functional Manila ports,” Santiago said.
The port utilization rate of 60.12 percent represents around 48,900 containers that are inside terminals while 32,600 container slots remain vacant. It is expected to range within 55-60 percent as the number of containers is expected to increase by 8,000 per day until after the Christmas season.
Furthermore, the MNP has a yard utilization rate of 43.4 percent enabling it to address the increase in demand for passengers.
“With a combined average quay crane productivity of the three terminals at 26 moves per hour per crane, barring any major development, we can guarantee a congestion-free Manila ports at any given time,” Santiago said.
The PPA likewise expects that the security measures that will be implemented in preparation for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in November will not make a significant impact on the congestion of Manila ports.
The Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) suspension of the use of its green lane and subject majority of imported cargoes to mandatory inspection is also not expected to disrupt the smooth flow of goods to and from the terminals.
The PPA, however, advises all cargo owners to plan ahead the delivery of their cargoes to and from ports to reduce any delays that might occur due to the event.
To date, total container volume reached 4..609 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). The volume is higher by 8.84 pecent compared to the 4.235 million TEUs handled in the same period last year.
About 85 percent of the total or 3.917 million TEUs are handled by the Manila ports wherein 2.703 million TEUs are foreign boxes composed of import and export cargoes while 1.905 million TEUs are domestic containers.
This year, the PPA is anticipating a modest increase in cargo volume of about 5-7 percent after revising a flat growth forecast early this year due to the country’s strong economic growth.
Snice October 12, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) has spared several kinds of shipments from being tagged under the red lane, including those bound for Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) areas.
The “purpose is to avoid congestion in our ports,” Customs commissioner Isidro Lapeña said. A corresponding memorandum will be issued for the new directive, he added.
In addition to PEZA-bound shipments, BOC also exempted perishable/ reefer shipments, except those coming from China; and importation of government agencies as well as multinationals from being tagged under the red lane.
Such shipments will also no longer undergo x-ray examination and are automatically ordered for release.
The order was handed down after the team of Chamber of Customs Brokers, Inc. (CCBI) president Atty. Ferdinand Nague on Oct 12 relayed industry fears of port congestion to Lapeña, Deputy Commissioner for Assessment and Operations Coordinating Group Atty James Edward Dy Buco, and head of Risk Management Office Jaybee Cometa.
Lapeña’s latest order specifically addresses the long queues of trucks in terminals that resulted from a Sept 29 BOC memorandum jacking up the threshold for container shipments that must go through the red lane from 20 percent to 80 percent daily; the same order also mandated all red lane shipments to undergo x-ray inspection.
This directive, Lapeña said, was designed to “safeguard the revenue collection efforts of the bureau” and is “part of the intensified campaign against smuggling and other forms of violations of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act and other related laws.”
That same order, however, came with an unintended consequence: queuing of trucks waiting to get their red lane shipments inspected via x-ray..
In a statement dated October 12, the Professional Customs Brokers Association of the Philippines, Inc. claimed that trucks now need to wait for 10 hours to undergo inspection, and another three to secure the x-ray image.
Previously, shipments directed to the red lane (high risk) comprised only 20 percent of the daily total number of cargoes entering the Philippines, while 60 percent were tagged under the yellow lane (medium risk), and 20 percent under the green lane (low risk).