State-run Philippine Ports Authority said Tuesday net income fell 7 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, on lower port revenues.
Data from PPA showed net profit in January to March amounted to P1.93 billion, down from P2.07 billion in the same period last year.
The port authority’s gross revenues declined 6.1 percent to P3.19 billion in the first quarter from last year’s P3.4 billion.
Revenues from port operations dropped 6.3 percent to P3.16 billion, while profits derived from storage shrank to P208.62 million from P651.07 million.
PPA’s fund management income improved 6.5 percent to P24.49 million from P23 million last year.
“The increase is primarily the result of the increased volume of idle funds invested through special and/or high-yield savings deposits at the beginning of the year as project implementation is just starting,” PPA said.
FMI is derived from interest income on temporary or short-term investment placed under PPA’s depository bank such as Philippine Veterans Bank and Land Bank of the Philippines.
PPA’s total expenditures declined 5 percent to P1.26 billion from P1.32 billion last year.
The port authority earlier reported a 6-percent increase in cargo volume in the first quarter to 50.1 million metric tons from 47.1 million MT in the same period last year.
Foreign cargo volume rose 7 percent to 27.2 million MT from 25.4 million MT a year earlier while domestic cargo increased 5.5 percent to 22.9 MMT from 21.7 MMT .
The agency, however, said container traffic fell 9.8 percent to 1.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units in the first quarter from 1.4 million TEUs in the same period last year.
Passenger traffic increased 16.6 percent to 15.8 million from 13.2 million last year.
PPA said bulk of the passengers came from Southern Luzon and Visayas with 5.5 million and 5.7 million passenger, respectively.
Ship calls went up by 15 percent to 104,094 in the first quarter from last year’s 90,448.