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Cambodia: PPAP’s first quarter revenue dips 13%
Public-listed Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) reported $8.23 million in revenue for the first quarter (Q1) of the year, a 13 percent decline compared to the same period last year.
In its filing of the unaudited revenue report for March 2023 and Q1, 2023 with the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), PPAP disclosed that the revenue from port operations dropped by a significant 25 percent in the first three months of 2023 compared to the same period last year.
While the earning from the port operations stood at $5.91 million for the quarter this year, it earned $7.88 million in Q1 last year. While earnings under all other heads went up during Q1 this year, the sharp drop in revenue came from port operations, the most important revenue head.
For March 2023, the public sector river port earned $2.09 million from port operations, compared to $2.69 million in March 2022. The total earnings for March this year stood at $3 million, compared to $3.29 million for the same month last year, recording a decrease of nine percent.
According to a separate filing of ‘Business Outcome for March and First Three Months 2023 (unaudited)’, PPAP reported a drop of 24.71 percent decline in the container throughput at the port for Q1 this year compared to the same month last year.
While the port managed 102,720 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) containers in Q1, 2022, it did only 77,341 TEU during the first three months of this year. However, PPAP reported a significant rise in the number of passenger boats and passengers this Q1 from nil in Q1, 2022 to 196 and 7,931 respectively.
For March 2023 alone, the port reported an 18.27 percent drop in container throughput compared to March 2022, from 34,837 TEU in last March to 28,471 TEU this March.
The passenger traffic, however, went up from nil in March 2022 to 3,131 for March this year.
It is estimated that nearly 80 percent of the containers that pass through the port are from the US and experts attribute a decline in trade with the US and European countries to the drop in revenue for PPAP this quarter.
The exports of garments, footwear and travel (GFT) products alone declined by 23 percent this quarter compared to the same period in 2022. Overall, Cambodia’s international trade decreased 14.5 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared to Q1 last year, according to the General Department of Customs and Excise recently.
Last year, Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) and PPAP together posted revenues of nearly $130 million, a report of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport showed. The freight through PAS increased by 2.45 percent to $86 million in 2022 and the PPAP rose by 17.10 percent to $40 million, compared to 2021.
Sun Chanthol, Senior Minister and Minister of Public Works and Transport, then attributed the rise in the throughput of the ports to an increase in agricultural exports, as well as the GFT products.
Large-scale modernization of navigation control by shifting from manual to online system also drove the progress, he was quoted as saying then.
The Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) also launched a Japan-financed Port Electronic Data Interchange (Port EDI) system at PAS and PPAP, with the aim of improving effectiveness, efficiency and transparency and reducing cost.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501276162/ppaps-first-quarter-revenue-dips-13/