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THE
Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said Tuesday its net
income in the first four months fell despite higher
gross revenues for the period because of higher
maintenance and other operating expenses.
It
registered a net income of P778 million from January to
April this year, down 4 percent from P810.2 million a
year earlier.
In a
report, the authority said its port revenue grew by 10
percent to P2.07 billion.
The
figure could have been higher if not for the
P88.65-million losses it incurred due to the peso-dollar
exchange rate.
“[The
loss] was cushioned by the port-revenue boost brought
about by the increase in the revenue volume of port
traffic, tariff adjustments and increase on income from
other sources,” the authority said in the report.
It added
that total expenses for the period grew 18 percent to
P1.3 billion, or more than P200 million from a year
earlier, due to higher operating expenses such as
personnel services, repair and maintenance and dredging.
On the
other hand, the PPA’s nonoperating expenses, mainly
interest charges on foreign loans, also rose to P167.37
million from P92.51 million as the state firm started
paying for the interest charges on its P5.5-billion loan
to develop the international container terminal in the
Port of Batangas.
Except
for its regional office in northern Mindanao, all of its
other port-management districts have increased
collection for the period, the PPA said.
“The
combined revenue of P2.04 billion of all PDOs [port
district offices] amounted to P195.18 million, or 10.54
percent higher than last year’s,” it said, adding that
government ports account for 81 percent of the total or
about P1.66 billion.
The top
five revenue contributors were the Manila South Harbor
with P405.64 million in revenues; Batangas with P153.06
million; Manila North Harbor with P136.6 million; Davao
with P100.16 million; and Limay with P78.06 million.
Fees
from the International Container Terminal Services Inc.
(ICTSI), the operator of Manila International Container
Terminal, accounts for 35 percent of the entire PPA
revenues. For the four-month period, ICTSI gave the PPA
P722.31 million.
Other
sources of PPA cash flows were from wharfage dues (22
percent), arrastre and stevedoring fees (18 percent),
vessel charges (13 percent) and other sources (12
percent).
The
authority earlier reported that cargo volumes for the
four-month period dropped by about 9 percent to 46
million metric tons (MT) compared with 50.35 million MT
in the year-earlier period.
The PPA
said the lower cargo volume could be traced to the
volume from Mindanao Container Terminal in Misamis
Oriental, as the facility has been placed under the
Phividec Industrial Authority. |
