WITH manufacturing output piling up, the majority of the Philippine exporters still find shipping their products across the sea—mostly to Western countries—an arduous task due to lack of vessel space.

A recent survey by the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) showed that 81.6 percent of the exporters' products are ready for outbound shipments but have remained pending amid container imbalances.

Furthermore, the exporters identified the following as their top shipping challenges: lack of space on international shipping lines (90 percent), increased freight rates (56.3 percent) and shortage of containers (45 percent).

Over half of the exporters' products are shipped weekly, 32.5 percent are delivered monthly and the remaining are quarterly shipments. Majority of these products go to the West, mainly in the United States and European countries.

Nearly 100 companies participated in the Philexport survey, 84 percent of which are micro, small and medium enterprises. The respondents mostly belong to the food, housewares, furniture, holiday decor and giftware sectors.

A previous survey with 65 respondents showed there were 30,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of pending cargo already, Philexport noted. These include processed food, furniture, housewares and activated carbon.

"As quarantine guidelines are eased globally and vaccination programs are successfully implemented, we project this volume will double or even triple, sizable enough for shipping lines to take notice," Philexport President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. said in a recent statement.

The survey, Philexport said, is its initiative in addressing the exporters' logistics and supply chain woes. The poll was conducted in partnership with the Export Development Council (EDC) and logistics solutions provider Royal Cargo.

Exporters' lament

The umbrella organization of exporters also detailed the amount of cargo potentially pending amid vessel shortage for individual companies.

Among the companies experiencing shipping woes is an exporter of banana chips, virgin coconut oil, coco flour and similar products. It regularly ships 500 TEUs of containers monthly to Asia and the Americas.

A ceramics company exports about 30 forty-foot equivalent units (FEUs) of decorative earthenware monthly to the US and Europe. A forwarder of decorative items, furniture, handicrafts and dried foodstuff, meanwhile, delivers 100 TEUs monthly to Europe, the US, the United Kingdom, Australia, China and the United Arab Emirates.

Weekly, a company sends 40 high-cube containers of holiday décor, tabletops, dolls, and giftware each week to the US, Europe and Oceania. A mattress manufacturer said it exports approximately 120 FEUs monthly to the US.

Another company ships out 85 full container loads of tropical fruit preserves, frozen fruits and vegetables, bagoong, dried and smoked fish and consolidated fast-moving consumer goods on a weekly basis. The export destinations include North America, Middle East, European Union, the UK, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

"With our huge export market in these regions, it is reasonable to foresee that the export industry will incur huge losses if this issue goes unresolved," Philexport warned.

A food and beverage company, meanwhile, said its products are "ageing in the warehouse" as shipment delays take two or more months. Before, the firm said it could load stocks one to two days after production.

In addition, the same manufacturer said that freight rates nearly tripled or quadrupled and securing vessel space for US, Middle East and Canada routes is challenging.

Cooperation

In a recent dialogue before the release of the survey, EDC Networking Committee on Transport and Logistics Enrico L. Basilio, Philexport Assistant Vice President Ma. Flordeliza Leong and Royal Cargo CEO Michael Kurt Raeubur highlighted the importance of public-private sector cooperation in resolving the shipping and logistics concerns.

The mentioned parties said that "cargo volumes are expected to further expand as the peak season approaches, and are forecast to rebound once the pandemic subsides."

Philexport, along with the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) and domestic ship owners, recently participated also in an online discussion held by the EDC to tackle the unavailability of vessel space.

"Among the recommendations, to be presented to the appropriate agencies, is to encourage domestic ship owners to operate within the region to expand vessel capacity," the exporters' group noted previously.

The BusinessMirror earlier broke the news about shipment delays—which started in the latter part of last year—due to shortage of vessels amid container imbalances. This situation is seen resulting in revenue losses on the part of the export industry.

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