Philippines: Local shipping firms start buying vessels

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Monday, 11 May 2009

DESPITE the global financial crisis, domestic shipping firms, including the country’s largest, have started importing their vessels during the last two months, a local organization of vessel operators said .
Negros Navigation Co., the country’s oldest that was bought by a company based in Kuwait, received two dedicated freighter vessels. Sources said the firm has already operated the vessel in a move to beef up capacity to keep up with its peers.
Publicly listed Aboitiz Transport System Corp. is also set to receive at least one of two vessels also to beef up its fleet, an official of the Philippine Liner Shipping Association (PLSA) said.
On the other hand, Oceanic Shipping Corp., a vessel operator that owns the sunken ship MV Ocean Papa, also took the delivery of another two dedicated cargo carriers. These vessels are aside from the ship it earlier acquired to replace the MV Ocean Papa, which sank in June last year due to Typhoon Frank.
“The vessel acquisition mode being undertaken by the different local shipping operators could be an indication of better times ahead,” said to the PLSA official, but added that the PLSA still maintains its earlier forecast of a flat to negative growth for the entire year.
No other details on vessels, capacity, among others, were given by the PLSA officials on competition issues among its members.
At the moment, operators are affected by the effects of the global crisis as cargo volume continues its decline during the first four months. Based on the group’s estimates, cargo volume declined by at least 20 percent compared with last year.
Cargoes from the Visayas and Mindanao to Luzon was down at least 25 percent while southbound cargo, or those from Manila to the Visayas and Mindanao, was down by at least 15 percent, according to the group’s estimates.
The Philippine Ports Authority earlier said its cargo volume declined to 19.67 million metric tons for the first two months of the year from 21.3 million metric tons the previous year, or a drop of about 7.6 percent.
Most of the decline was from the movement of foreign cargo, with exports contracting by close to 30 percent to 2.5 million metric tons from the previous year’s 3.5 million metric tons.
Import volume also contracted by 4 percent to 6.72 million metric tons from the previous year’s 7 million metric tons. 
Source: Business Mirror