BUSINESS

Cebu ports 8.7% hike on cargoes

Rico Osmeña

The Cebu Port Authority ( CPA) posted an increase on cargoes for first nine months of 2024.

According to the preliminary data from CPA, Cebu ports handled 54.553 million metric tons (MT) compared to 50.173 million MT in 2023.

Domestic cargoes accounted for 79.5% or 43.354 million MT of the total volume, marking a jump of 7.6% from 40.308 million MT in 2023.

Meanwhile, foreign cargoes reached 11.199 million MT, an increase of 13.5% from 9.865 million MT in 2023.

Imports rose to 16.4% to 10.158 million MT from 8.728 million MT in 2023, while exports dropped 8.4% to 1.040 million MT from 1.136 million MT in 2023.

Cebu ports processed 728,570 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from January to September or 7.3% increase from 678,842 TEUs in 2023 of the same period.

Domestic containers slightly improved by 0.7% to 364,786 TEUs, while foreign containers saw double-digit growth of 13.5% to 352,520 TEUs.

Domestic transshipments soared to 95.3% to 11,264 TEUs from 5,768 TEUs in 2023.

Imports rose 15.9% to 172,304 TEUs and Exports jump to 11.3% to 180,216 TEUs.

Rolling cargoes posted 9.9% improvement to 1.345 million units from 1.224 million in 2023.

Cebu ports recorded 8.7% more ship calls in January to September, totaling 110,281 ship calls compared to 101,424 in 2023

Domestic ship calls increased by 8.7% to 109,495, while foreign ship calls rose 13.3% to 786.

Passenger traffic also rose to 8% to 15.050 million from 13.930 million in 2023.

The CPA has jurisdiction over Cebu baseports and its subports, which include Cebu International Port (CIP) and the domestic zone, as well as the ports of Mandaue, Danao, Sta. Fe, Toledo and Argao.