Private sector sources have confirmed congestion at Manila ports is easing.

A decision by the Manila city government to restrict the hours during which large trucks could deliver and remove containers from the various facilities which make up the Port of Manila helped make port congestion in the Philippines’ capital city an increasingly thorny issue in 2014.

“There has been significant improvement this year for the issue of congestion at the Port of Manila, compared to late last year,” Erry Hardianto, Philippines country manager for Maersk Line told Asia Cargo News in early March.

“We have seen a steady decrease in yard occupancy ratio (YOR) and [in the] number of vessels lined up for berthing in the Manila port. However, there are still some vessels queuing up, so there is still some congestion,” Hardianto added.

Maersk Line is also calling at the Port of Batangas, located 130 kilometres south of Manila, and, recently, it also added a call at Subic, 130 kilometres north of Manila, destinations which have helped the line deal with the congestion.

According to Hardianto, Maersk is the shipping line with the most comprehensive coverage of Luzon Island, the main island of the Philippines, which represents more than 50% of the country's export/import activities.

Balancing the awareness that things are getting better, but are not yet completely solved, some other lines remain cautious while acknowledging improvements.

“The situation is still fluid and we can't make the predication at this juncture. However, there are measures taken by [Philippines] authorities to further ease this congestion and we need to monitor on this development," an official from Regional Container Lines told Asia Cargo News.

These sources confirm a government claim that the utilization level at Manila South Harbor (MSH) and Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), the key parts of Manila port, were decreasing.

Utilization was 76.5%, approximately 62,300 teus, at MSH and MICT, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said in a statement.

“The level is 3.5 percentage points lower than the 80% utilization level target set by the Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion,” said the statement.

Yard utilization level has been between 75% to 79% since the mid-January visit of Pope Francis, when port users were encouraged to move containers, the statement added.

Another index of improvement flagged by PPA is the combined number of vessels waiting at pilot station declining to five. This excludes berthed vessels, it added.

“Vessel turnaround time still remains at two days while the average yard productivity for both ports is at 18 moves per hour per crane,” the PPA statement added.

While there is improvement, what overshadows it all is what could have been, as despite Manila’s congestion problems, the country’s ports saw a 5% increase in throughput, the Ports Authority has said in a notice on its website.

(The cost to the Philippines is not so much in holding back throughput – although that’s bad enough – but in adding to its reputation for poor infrastructure and even worse organization.)

Volumes rose about 5% to 211.2 million metric tons (MMT) for 2014 from 201.91 MMT posted in the same period last year, the PPA said, using its own data.

“Foreign cargo throughput posted an increase at 7.45% to 133.29 MMT from 124.05 MMT in 2013,” the PPA statement said. “Import volume soared by 11.29% hike to 67.56 MMT, while export volume inched up by 3.77% to 65.73 MMT from 63.34 MMT in 2013,” the statement added.

River sand, magnetite sand, crude minerals, nickel ore, limestone ore, clinker and slag, and coconut oil and copra, fruits and fish were named as drivers on the exports side.

Container volume increased by 3.95% to 5.43 million teus in 2014 from 5.23 million teus the previous year, the PPA said.

Problems at Manila were diplomatically covered by the Authority’s statement: “Coordinated efforts from various government agencies and the private sector cushioned the adverse effect of the truck ban imposed in Manila starting [in] February 2014,” said Juan C. Sta. Ana, PPA’s general manager.

“Despite the ban, the volume of containers in the Manila ports, composed of the Manila South Harbor and the Manila International Container Terminal, still managed to post a modest increase,” Sta. Ana noted.

By Michael Mackey

Southeast Asia Correspondent | Bangkok