Ocean shipping and exports

Title

Creator

Tunold, B. B.

Language

English

Source

The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume XXX (Issue No. 6) June 1954

Year

1954

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

230 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL June, 1954 For the Abad Santos family, a 3-story office building on Pennsyl vania street, estimated to cost P60.000. A s is usually the case at this time of the year, most of " the building permits issued are for residential build ings, and this fact accounts for the small volume of contruction work during the period under review. The price of essential materials remained firm. Steel bars are quoted at P360 per ton. Galvanized-iron sheets, both corrugated and plain, are selling at P6.00 to P6.20 per sheet for gauge 26, 8 feet long. Ordinary apitong and tanguile, are quoted at P120 to P240 per 1,000 bd. ft. Portland cement continued to be very scarce and many construction jobs had to be stopped due to lack of supply. A bag of 94 pounds, sold by the factory at P3.40 to P3.60, sells at from P8 to P10 per bag. To remedy the situation, the Central Bank has allocated enough dollars for the importation of 500,000 bags, but reports from Japanese suppliers state th,at the earliest shipment can be made only in September. Port of Manila By W. S. Hurst Executive Officer, Luzon Brokerage Company THE tonnage of cargo delivered from the South Harbor piers for the month of May totalled 86,000 tons. It is anticipated, at the rate ships are arriving artd with the amount of cargo each is bringing, that this ton nage will be greatly increased during the month of June. The piers are once again in a sadly congested condition and it can be seen that the South Harbor piers are not large enough to handle the volume of imports that has been coming in. As a result of this congestion cargo can often not be located on the pier and deliveries in most cases cannot be made complete at one time. In many cases the cargoes of different ships are mixed together, and this, with the fact that it still takes around five days to have papers processed through the Custom House, adds to the congestion. From reports in the newspapers it appears that the Customs Bureau is now suffering from lack of funds. In view of the amount of money that the Customs Bureau makes for the Government, the Bureau itself should not have its efficiency jeopardized by lack of funds to pay salaries and other overhead expenses. As of June, Mr. Edilberto David took over as new Acting Customs Commissioner, taking his oath of office before Executive Secretary Fred Ruiz Castro. Col. Jaime Velasquez still remains as technical adviser to the Pre sident on customs affairs. As stated in a previous write up, Mr. David is an old-timer in the Bureau of Customs. With his large knowledge of customs matters, we feel he should make a good Commissioner. This will be de cided when it is seen how much cooperation is given to him by his department heads. Ocean Shipping and Exports By B. B. Tunold Secretary-Manager Associated Steamship Lines TOTAL exports during the month of April this year showed a decrease of 55,814 tons as compared with exports during April of last year; 133 vessels lifted 378,964 tons of exports during the month, as against 434,325 tons lifted by 137 vessels during the same month last year. The decrease is mainly attributed to a reduction in hemp and iron ore exports. Exports for April, 1954, as compared with exports during April, 1953, were as follows: Commodity Beer................................................ Cigars and cigarettes............. Coconut, desiccated................. Coconut oil................................. Concentrates containing cop per, gold, silver, lead, and Concentrates, copper.............. Copra............................................ Copra cake and meal............. Embroideries............................... Empty cylinders....................... Fruits, fresh, mangoes............ Furniture, rattan...................... Glycerine..................................... Gums, copal............................... Hemp............................................ Hemp rugs................................... Household goods and personal effects ....................................... Junk metal................................. Logs.............................................. Lumber, sawn . .......................... 1954 40 tons 15 ” 3,041 ” 3,860 ” 1953 169 tons 17 ” 4,125 ’’ 4,234 ” 383 ” 7,726 ” 48,943 ” 5,460 ” 260 ” 114 ” 531 ” 615 ” 84 ” 63 ” 52,751 bales 171 tons 1,098 ” 41,256 ” 4,079 ” 227 ” 327 ” 468 ” 1,234 ” 100 ” 95,032 bales 220 ” 23 ” 32,569,203 bd.ft. 5,037,606 ” 188 tons 265 ” 29,822,776 b.ft. 5,091,293 ” for expert, guaranteed repair jobs CADWALLADER PACIFIC COMPANY MANILA * CEBU * ILOILO * BACOLOD * DAVAO I June, 1954 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 231 Molasses....................................... Plywood and plywood pro ducts .......................................... Ores, chrome.............................. Ores, iron.................................... Ores, manganese....................... Pineapples, canned................... Rattan, round........................... Rice............................................... Rope.............................................. Shell, shell waste...................... Sugar, cent, raw........................ Sugar, refined............................. Sugar, muscovado..................... Tobacco ........................................ Vegetable oil.............................. Veneer........................................... Transit cargo............................. Merchandise, general.............. 16,066 tons 15,202 tons 26 ” 15 ” 36,708 ” 41,303 ” 32,518 ” 92,121 ” 319 ” 984 ” 5,032 ” 12,444 ” 267 ” 254 ” 6,584 ” — 341 ” 447 ” 70 ” 39 ” 121,750 ” 124,703 ” 897 ” — 251 ” — 319 ” 1,624 ” 101 ” 43 ” 30 ” 680 ” 30 ” 513 ” 2,360 ” Products of forests.............................................. 9,031 Products of manufactures................................. 35,188 Merchandise less than by carloads................ 2,446 Total..................................................... 119,621 17,276 23,890 4,568 76,076 Freight Car Loadings By Jose B. Libunao Traffic Manager, Manila Railroad Company LOADINGS of revenue freight during the month of April, 1954, totaled 6,262 cars. This was an increase of 3,529, or 129.13%, over loadings during April, 1953, of 2,733 cars. The increase in the number of cars used was due to the delay in the cutting of sugar cane for the Pasudeco, Pasumil, and Central Azucarera sugar cen trals on the Northern Line and for the Canlubang Sugar Estate on the Southern Line. It may be stated that even in May, Pasudeco is still cutting cane. Revenue Carloadings by Group Commodities Products of agriculture...................................... Animal products................................................... Products of mines................................................ Class April—Tonnage 1954 70,110 432 2,413 1953 27,393 1,021 1,935 In this review there were 47 items considered, and of these 16 registered increases while 31 suffered declines. There was an aggregate increase of 61,242 tons and an aggregate decrease of 17,697 tons. The most important items which registered increases were: sugar cane, 43,255 tons; centrifugal sugar, 12,357 tons; fuel oil, 1,962 tons; and soft drinks, 1,519 tons, or an aggregate total increase of 59,093 tons. On the other hand, the important items which suffered declines were: lumber, 6,151 tons; mer chandise less carloads 2,123 tons; wood fuel, 1,850 tons; gasoline, 1,821 tons; and molasses, 1,428 tons, or an ag gregate decline of 13,373 tons. It is evident from the above figures that the increase in sugar cane is due to the greater production this season which very nearly reached pre-war level, while the increase in centrifugal sugar is due to increased exportation for the period. As a matter of fact there is plenty of centrifugal sugar which cannot be loaded on vessels, as existing port facilities cannot accommodate the berthing of ships. Mo lasses, on the other hand} showed a decline in carloadings due to the competition of barges and the lack of railroad facilities to handle this commodity. Trucks also carried a good amount of molasses via Guagua wharf. The in crease in shipments of fuel oil was due to the use of this oil in the sugar centrals as well as in other factories. The increase in soft drink shipments, on the other hand, was primarily due to the summer season. The decrease in lumber shipments was due to lower exportation. Wood fuel has been lately shipped by barges because of lack of freight cars which could be supplied for this commodity. Merchandise shipped in less than carComplete . . . Integrated Facilities— ENGINEERS—CONTRACTORS MANUFACTURERS—DISTRIBUTORS Operating: STRUCTURAL STEEL FABRICATING SHOP MACHINE SHOPS FOR CONSTRUCTION & REPAIR FOUNDRY FOR CAST IRON, BRASS & BRONZE WOOD PRESERVING PLANT K5OW-IIOW” BACKED BY EXPERIENCE SINCE HIO5

pages

230-231

Media