CPA reports slowdown in inbound cargoes

The Commonwealth Ports Authority over the weekend reported a major decline in the volume of activities in the islands’ three major seaport facilities for the month ending February 29, 2000 compared with year-ago figures.

A report submitted to the finance committee of the CPA Board of Directors disclosed that gross revenue tonnage fell by three percent in February 2000 primarily due to a dramatic drop in the volume of inbound cargo.

The volume of incoming beverages dropped by 12 percent, cement by 26 percent while raw textile imports fell by 16 percent.
Activities in Rota harbor contributed 1,065 in gross revenue tonnage for the same period, falling by 50 percent from the previous year tally. Proof of this is the 53 percent decline in the inbound revenue tonnage during the October-February period.

At the same time, Tinian seaport registered 1,687 gross revenue tonnage in February, spiraling down by 24 percent in comparison with the 1999 figures.

However, outbound revenue tonnage jumped six percent from 11,241 in February 1999 to 11,841 this year, resulting to a 21 percent increase in the agency’s earnings for the same period to $385,000 from last year’s $319,000.

CPA finance managers also attribute the improvement in the marine division’s operating revenues for February to the implementation of seaport charges beginning July 1999.

CPA adjusted seaport charges in July 1999 as part of intensified plan to generate enough revenues that would help sustain the agency’s payment for the maritime division’s annual $2.5 million debt service.

Under the revised seaport division terminal tariff, wharfage rates for cargo was $3.25 per revenue ton until Sept. 30, 1999. The rate was increased to $4.50 per revenue ton from Oct. 1, 1999 to Oct. 1, 2001.

CPA would be increasing the wharfage fees again beginning October 2001 to $5.50 per revenue ton for a five-year period.

Thereafter, the rate shall increase by five percent for each succeeding five-year period.

Port entry fee was pegged at $61.88 for vessels of 1,000 registered gross tons and under; $123.75 for ships between 1,001 and 2,000 registered gross tons; and $123.75 for vessels over 2,000 gross tons plus an additional charge of $61.88 per each 2,000 gross tons.

These figures was raised by 30 percent starting Oct. 1, 1999 for a three-year period, then will be increased by another 30 percent starting October 2001 for a period of five years. It will periodically increase by five percent for each succeeding five-year period starting October 2006.

Amended dockage rates average between $55.88 for vessels not over 100 feet and $583.74 for ships bigger than 550 feet. The rates will increase by 30 percent beginning Oct. 1, then another 30 percent after three years.

CPA has also started collecting $0.18 per barrel for residual oil and $0.32 per barrel for diesel fuel from suppliers bunkering at the port. The rates will also be periodically increased by 30 percent in three years, and five percent for the succeeding five-year period.

Passenger fee was raised to $4.50 per person that boards a vessel through any port in the CNMI which CPA operates. Such rate increased to $5.85 starting October last year; $7.61 in 2001 for a five-year period.

The rate hike brought in additional revenues averaging 60 percent in entry fees, 34 percent in throughput fees, six percent in dockage fees while embarking passengers jumped by a historic 2,190 percent, according to the financial report.

Good news is a feasibility study recently conducted for CNMI seaport facilities disclosed that the ports authority’s marine division will witness a consistent growth in revenues until 2002, from $4 million in 1999 to over $5.6 million in 2002 largely because of the development in the garment sector.

This figure is nearly 25 percent higher than the Fiscal Year 1998 tally of $4.3 million.

The good days are not meant to last long, however. The same study projected that revenues could fall from $5.7 million in FY 2002 to $3.2 million in FY 2007 which will be spurred mainly by the pending demise of the apparel manufacturing sector on Saipan.

The CNMI seaport is bent at losing about 6,000 inbound and 5,000 outbound containers annually with the pending pullout of garment manufacturing industry from Saipan.