BY GENIVI FACTAO

The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) expects container growth at single digit this year after shipping lines claimed volume ended flat last year.

PPA said global slowdown will definitely affect traffic this eyar.

Since 2004, the PPA has not hit the 10 percent volume growth for container volume.

The PPA executive conference report said that growth in throughput is expected to be minimal in the next three years.

The volume growth in the country’s top 10 major gateways— the Manila International Container Terminal, South Harbor, North Harbor, Batangas Port, Iloilo, Davao, Zamboanga, Iloilo, Ozamiz and Cagayan de Oro are limited to less than 5 percent.

The report showed that forecasts in 6 out of the 10 major ports in the country has a combined 2.5 percent to 5 percent growth in cargo volume starting this year to 2010.

Others will have flat-to-negative volume growth also in the next 3 years.

The Port of Davao is anticipating a modest increase of about 5 percent in total cargo throughput starting this year until 2010.

Davao has consistently posting growth in total cargo throughput since 2000 by about 8 percent except in 2001 and in 2006 when it posted some 3 percent drop in total cargo throughput.

Zamboanga is likewise projecting cargo throughput to increase 5 percent starting this year to 2010.

General Santos sees cargo throughput to increase by 6 percent annually, the highest among the 10 ports which will continue until 2010.

PPA has been eyeing that the privatization of the Batangas port would lead to a surge in cargo traffic starting this year.

However, the privatization was suspended due to the pending case before the Supreme Court on payments of Batangas lot owners.

PPA then allowed the Asian Terminal Inc. to operate Batangas port temporarily, following the suspension of the privatization.

Batangas Port, when privatized is expected to get about 10 percent or about 4 million TEUs of the total Asian containerized cargo traffic and compete well with Taiwan or Singapore.

The Batangas port has a container yard of 15 hectares, berth depth that can be expanded to 13.5 meters, total handling capacity of 400,000 TEUs, berth length of 470 meters, access and service road of about four kilometers, and can handle two panamax ships.