Local public-listed river-port operator Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) reported a sharp decline in business performance in the first five months of the year due to regional and global economic uncertainty brought on by the protracted Ukraine conflict and its effects on demand and inflation.

In a filing to the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) on June 13, the state-owned enterprise posted total revenue of $14.189 million for the five month period, down 24.23 per cent from the $18.727 million recorded in the same time last year.

PPAP provided the following breakdown by revenue type: “port operation” ($10.656M; down 20.44% from $13.393M), “port authority” ($1.879M; up 9.62% from $1.715M), “other services” ($484,960; up 278.6% from $128,102) and “other incomes” ($1.168M; down 66.54% from $3.490M).

The filing pointed out that none of the 2023 statistics had been audited, while all of the 2022 figures had.

CSX director for market operations Kim Sopha Nita assured The Post on June 14 that the port’s growth would not be materially hampered by the “short-term” shortfall in PPAP’s business performance.

“I think since the drop can be short-term, investors may tend to hold and continue to observe its performance,” she said. “On the other hand that would be great if the company could share [with] public investors about the company’s prospect[s], actions and expectation[s] for the next quarters and rest of the year.”

In an January 10 CSX filing, the river-port operator said it handled 3,783 cargo vessels at its facilities in 2022, soaring by 64.34 per cent from the 2,302 recorded in 2021.

Oil, gas and cargo throughput climbed by 5.16 per cent to 4.044 million tonnes, while container throughput increased by 19.72 per cent to 417,696 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), it added.

A TEU is an inexact unit of cargo capacity used in the shipping industry roughly equivalent to a container with internal dimensions measuring about 20 feet long, eight feet wide and 8.5 feet tall, or a volume roughly 38.5 cubic metres.

PPAP noted that 109 passenger boats carrying 6,947 people docked at its facilities over the year, up from zero in 2021.

For the first 11 months of 2022, the company also announced revenues from business activities of more than $37 million, an increase of 22 per cent year-on-year.

Comparatively, PPAP posted net profits of $12.7 million in 2021, up 29 per cent over 2020, and container throughput of 348,898 TEUs, up nearly 20.0 per cent from 290,857 TEUs in 2020, which came after a 3.49 per cent increase from 2019.