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Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. said Wednesday road congestion is not caused by activities at the Port of Manila but by lack of good infrastructure. “What is lacking, and what has been lacking for the last few decades, is road infrastructure.  Congestion on land is largely a result of lack of road infrastructure to match the growth of the economy. The low utilization of outports is likewise driven by poor road infrastructure. No shipping line or customer of a shipping line will want to use Batangas or Subic if it cannot get the majority of imports destined into the capital through the roads,” ICTSI head of the Asian region Christian Gonzalez said in a statement.

Gonzalez said truck movements represent trade.  “Trade represents growth. Growth represents jobs and prosperity. Closing the roads to trade slows down growth, jobs and prosperity.  It’s that simple. Those are the facts, and those are the statistics, and people need to start understanding them in order to develop proper sustainable strategies to keep trade moving and our economy growing,” said Gonzalez.

He also denied reports about the alleged congestion in the Port of Manila, as he cautioned lawmakers and the general public in issuing broad statements without really understanding the trade and logistics situation. Gonzalez said the Port of Manila was the 25th largest non-transshipment port in the world and the 37th largest container port overall in terms of capacity and volume handled.

“There are thousands of container ports around the globe.  The Port handles more containerized cargo than any single port in 10 of the 20 member states of the G20 largest economies in the world.  Specifically, the Port also handles more containers than any container port in Australia, France, Italy, Brazil, Canada or Russia,” Gonzalez said.

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