THE Cebu Port Authority (CPA) has allowed the use of a 1.2-hectare container yard at the Cebu International Port for storage of seized and forfeited cargo containers.
Bureau of Customs (BOC) Cebu Port District Collector Arnulfo Marcos said this will decongest the port of overstaying cargoes.
“It will be very helpful for us because we don’t have our own warehouse where we can place the seized and forfeited containers,” Marcos said during the 888 News Forum this week.
Lawyer Kenneth Sesante, chief of staff of BOC Port of Cebu, said the container yard is about 500 meters away from their office.
“We completed the memorandum of agreement (MOA) a month ago but we still have to forward it to our central office for approval,” Sesante said.
Rene Bacon, Cebu International Port manager, told Cebu Daily News that at least 656 20-foot and 75 40-foot cargo containers have been overstaying at the port. These were either seized or forfeited.
The CIP can accommodate only 11,000 cargo containers. An average of 2,000 containers arrive every week.
“Port congestion has eased since March, after we doubled the storage fee at the CIP,” Bacon said.
Cargo containers may be stored for free for five days at the port. After five, days, storage fees are imposed on the consignees.
For overstaying cargo containers cleared by BOC, storage fee is P3,750 per day for import containers and P7,500 per day for export containers.
For overstaying containers that have not been cleared, storage fee is P405 for import containers per day and P102 per day for export containers.