Higher power demand lifts spot market prices

By Alena Mae S. Flores

THE Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines said Tuesday electricity demand increased in April amid higher temperature, resulting in slightly higher prices at the spot market.

IEMOP, operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, said this led to a 16.8-percent increase in prices to P7.68 per kilowatt-hour as of April 23.

Power demand reached 11,033 MW for Luzon and Visayas as of April 23, up by 789 MW or 7.7 percent from March because of hotter temperature.

IEMOP said in its monthly market operations highlights average demand also increased from 1,752 MW to 1,790 MW for Mindanao.

Meanwhile, Luzon peak demand soared to 12,221 MW on April 19, breaching last year’s peak demand of 12,103 MW which

In Brief

Aboitiz offers to improve Iloilo International Airport

ABOITIZ InfraCapital Inc. submitted to the Department of Transportation an unsolicited proposal for the development and improvement of the Iloilo International Airport, a top executive said Tuesday. “We are actively exploring further opportunity growing our airport platform, and in fact we have just submitted an unsolicited proposal to develop and improve the Iloilo International Airport as a response to [Iloilo] Mayor Treñas,” AIC president and chief executive Cosette Canilao said in a virtual briefing.

Treñas earlier sent a letter of request to the National Economic and Development Authority and to InfraCapital to consider the upgrade of the airport under the public private partnership scheme.

“We believe that we have the right ingredients in AIC in terms of experience and expertise via our technical partner Dublin Airport Authority and on the ground knowledge to deliver the best solution for Iloilo,” Canilao said.

“We are excited for our proposal to be considered and we look forward to working with the government for that,” she said. Canilao said the company also submitted updated unsolicited proposals for Bohol International Airport, Laguindingan Airport and Bicol International Airport for NEDA evaluation and approval.

Darwin G. Amojelar

UnionBank’s net income rose 30% to P3.4b in Q1

UNION Bank of the Philippines said Tuesday net income in the first three months jumped 30 percent year-on-year to P3.4 billion.

UnionBank president and chief executive Edwin occurred on May 12, 2022. This was also 747 MW or 6.5 percent higher than 11,474 MW in March.

Demand in the Visayas peaked at 2,380 MW on April 17, while Mindanao also recorded a new peak demand of 2,363 MW on April 19, up 10 percent from the same period last year.

“Year-to-date peak demand for all regions has breached its previous year’s peak demand level,” IEMOP said.

IEMOP said available supply in Luzon and Visayas was slightly higher in April to 14,612 MW compared to 14,226 MW in March, as fewer power plants were on scheduled outages.

“Supply level in Luzon-Visayas increased by around 386 MW or 2.7 percent for April 2023, attributable to minimal generator outages. In Mindanao, the average supply was maintained at around 3,000 MW level,” the agency said.

Bautista, in a statement, listed a number of factors that contributed to the bank’s better performance in the first quarter. “UnionDigital is already profitable after less than a year in operation. There is strong momentum in the acquired credit cards business from Citi. New-to-bank card customers are at a record level. We are geared up to grow our retail banking business,” Bautista said.

UnionDigital Bank, a fully-digital lender, secured its approval to operate from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on July 12, 2022.

Bautista said UnionBank has sufficient capital coming from the recent stock rights offering to further grow its earning asset base.

Net revenues, which largely came from recurring income, increased 57 percent year-on-year to P16.1 billion. Net interest income grew 43 percent to P11.5 billion, driven by the P3-billion contribution of the acquired Citi consumer business and strong consumer loan growth in the parent bank, CitySavings and UnionDigital. Julito G. Rada

ECCP welcomes improved global ranking of

PH

Logistics

THE European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines said it welcomes the World Bank report which put the Philippines on the 43rd spot of 139 countries in terms of logistics performance index, representing an improvement of 17 spots from 60th place previously.

The ECCP said it continuously supports measures that will aid logistical efficiency and customs and trade facilitation in an increasingly globalized world where seamless and sustainable trade is essential.

The seventh edition of the LPI report came after three years of unprecedented supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, when delivery times soared.

The LPI, which covers 139 countries, measures the ease of establishing reliable supply chain connections and the structural factors that make it possible such as the quality of logistics services, trade and transportrelated infrastructure and border controls. Othel V. Campos