MANILA: Utilization rates at the ports of Manila have been cut by almost half after exceeding 100 percent months after the city government of Manila imposed a truck ban in February last year.
The vast improvement could be traced to the system implemented by the government as well as port operators led by International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI).
ICTSI Asia Pacific head Christian Gonzalez has encouraged other stakeholders in the industry to embrace the soon to be implemented truck dispatch system and container appointment platform to eliminate any further threat of future port congestion.
Gonzalez told a recent hearing by the Senate Committee on Trade Commerce, and Entrepreneurship that the new system would prevent a repeat of massive delays of shipments due to congestion brought about by the truck ban.
ICTSI adopted an updated online container tracking system dubbed as Track and Trace version 4.0 to further improved overall system functionality and user experience at the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT). The system was first implemented in 2012 to complement the MICT iBox, an e-commerce facility designed to provide MICT clients with information on vessel schedules, cargo movements and statement of accounts among others.
Gonzalez pointed out that utilization rates at the ports of Manila decreased dramatically to below 60 percent despite servicing extremely high volumes of cargo over the past six months.
“Despite extremely high volumes in February and March, 2015, average utilization came down to 57 percent despite a very high rate of growth. The ports now have higher volumes than any peak season previously and utilization remained at its lowest in last four years,” he said.
The number of laden containers piled up at the Manila ports totaled 85,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) which occupied about 104 percent of the yard of the ports while the total of empty containers also reached a high of 22,000 TEUs in end June.
The congestion was caused mainly by the day-time truck ban imposed by the City Government of Manila from Feb. 24 to end May that practically limited the movement of cargoes in and out of the ports during nighttime only. Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada announced the lifting of the truck ban last Sept. 14.
Last February, PPA general manager Juan Sta. Ana announced that the congestion has been resolved as the utilization at ICTSI’s Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and the Manila South Harbor of Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) improved to 76.5 percent or 3.5 percentage points lower than the 80 percent utilization level target set by the Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion.
Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said a combination of discipline, focused government plan on connecting roads and new technology removed vehicular traffic problems in the city of Manila and brought back to normal the situation at the Manila ports despite a pick up in trade volume.