Empty containers staying at the container yard of the Manila International Container Port (MICP) are not causing any congestion, Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña said Tuesday, debunking port congestion reports.
“I would like to inform the public that the reports of port congestion is not true. It is a perception,” Lapeña said.
“According to port operators, while the yard utilization is high, which is 94 percent in MICP, maluwag naman sa loob ng port at noong tiningnan ko talagang maluwag naman,” the commissioner explained.
He furthered that the empty containers inside the yard “will add up on the port utilization but will not actually cause port congestion.”
Currently, the bureau is taking taking two actions to address the issues on yard utilization, Lapeña said.
“It is the accreditation of additional container yard that can be used by the shipping lines to deposit their empty containers and at the same time issue a CMO (Customs Memorandum Order) limiting the number of days for empty containers staying in the port yard,” he added.
About 8,000 empty containers are currently staying at the container yard of the MICP and according to Lapeña , these empty containers have been there for more than 30 days now, prompting them to limit the allowable stay of the containers inside the yard from 120 days to 90 days “to free up space on the port container yards.”
Read more on Manila Bulletin.
