country presentation palau · domestic shipping • over 600 small crafts (vessels measuring under...
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Strengthening Inter‐Island Shipping and Logisticsin the Pacific Island Countries
PalauCountry Report
23 – 25 JulySuva, Fiji
DOMESTIC SHIPPING
• Over 600 small crafts (vessels measuring under 19.8 meters) provide transportation services throughout Palau.•Some carry passengers on a commercial basis.•Others carry cargo and passengers on a non‐commercial basis.
•Two cargo‐passenger vessels that provide services between the island of Koror and Peliliu and Angaur.
Domestic Ports
Palau has about 30 docks and marinas that are used by small boats. Ten of these are located in the main commercial district of Koror. The others are evenly distributed throughout the other states.
Port InfrastructuresPalau has two international port facilities and two anchorage areas for international shipping. Last year there were 75 cargo ship calls and 16 tanker calls into Palau main commercial port.
Palau off‐loads the average of 2,572 TEUs each year.
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Inernational Shipping Service Network
Shipping services are governed by the Micronesian Shipping Commission. Routes are generally divided according to point of origin of cargo to ports in each of the participating governments, namely Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia. Routes which include Palau are as follows:
US West Coast to Palau and Yap;Philippines to Palau and Yap;Asia to Palau and Yap;Australia/New Zealand to Palau and Yap;; andHonolulu to Palau and Yap.Guam to Palau MSC Meeting (October 2009)
Challenges in strengthening interisland shipping in the sub‐region
•Current port infrastructures cannot accommodate cargo vessels that have a draft in excess of 8.2 meters. This limits the sizes of ships that can call into port and increases shipping costs.
•The port facility also has limited container area and cannot accommodate future increase in the number of containers as volume of cargo grows.
Solutions to overcome those challenges
•To address high cost of shipping due to the inherent nature of one‐way trade, we are looking at building our export capacity to address the issue of import‐export imbalance.
•To address port infrastructure limitations, we are working with the SPC Economic Development Division to develop a strategy to improve our port capacity.
Thank You!