Thailand
Cambodia: Phnom Penh Autonomous Port’s revenue rises in spite of the Delta variant
Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) says it earned 17 percent more last month than in August 2020. It reported unaudited revenue of just over $3.32 million compared with audited figures of $2.83 million a year earlier. The port operator does not disclose monthly income.
The port handled 20 percent more containers than a year earlier at 37,092 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units).
In the first eight months of this year revenue rose 11 percent to $21.73 million, according to a statement filed with the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX). Container volume rose 13 percent to 219,309 TEU. There have been no passengers so far this year, compared with 9,733 in the first eight months of 2020, because no passenger boats have been through the port this year. The number of cargo vessels is down just over half a percent compared with January to August 2020.
Port operation contributed 13 percent to eight-month revenue while port authority revenue dropped 8 percent. Revenue from other services rose by 48 percent and other income rose by 21 percent.
“Growth in the port industry indicates that the demand for goods and logistics services stays positive in the Kingdom regardless of the new Delta variant of Covid-19,” said CSX Director Kim Sophanita. “The government’s prompt and effective actions toward Covid-19 control gives the nation a high level of confidence. However, the industry is still facing a potential threat from the international supply chain. For example, one infection case in [the world’s third busiest container port], Ningbo, in China, last month caused a partial closure of operations, which caused a disruption of shipping to elsewhere in the world,” she added
PPAP said revenue fell 4.6 percent last year, compared with 2019, as the Coronavirus pandemic cut spending by consumers and companies, cutting demand for imports and exports. Chief Executive Officer of Cana Securities Thai Nha said he thinks this year’s results will be much better.
“Revenue of PPAP in 2021 has seen an increase every month. Compared with July 2021, the revenue in August 2021 was up by 7.2 percent,” he said. “PPAP has completed the development of port infrastructure at container terminal LM17 for Step III, phase I. As a result, the total of RTG Cranes has been increased to 12, enabling it to accommodate more container handling. This is the key driver of revenue growth in 2021 as LM17 is the main terminal for container cargo. In my opinion, the outlook for 2021 is favourable as revenue is likely to surpass the revenue of 2020 mainly because the demand for container handling is increasing and expected to grow 10 percent compared with 2020. Given the average monthly container handling in the last three months is more than 33,000 TEUs per month, I believe that the total container handling by the end of 2021 will be more than 350,000 TEUs,” he said.
Shares of PPAP rose a quarter of 1 percent at the start of trading yesterday. They closed yesterday’s trading session unchanged at 15,000 riels per share. PPAP is one of two ports listed on the CSX, along with Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS), which ended yesterday’s session unchanged at 13,660 riels a share.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50935299/phnom-penh-autonomous-ports-revenue-rises-in-spite-of-the-delta-variant/