Ocean Oct 10, 2026 · 8 min read

Manila truckers stop work over an empty-box glut, and Hapag-Lloyd halts Philippine bookings

Manila truckers stop work over empty boxes as Hapag-Lloyd halts Philippine bookings. Only about 10% of volumes were leaving Manila’s ports, The Loadstar reported on 5 October, as brokers and truckers stopped work over thousands of empty containers carriers are not taking back. Hapag-Lloyd has suspended bookings to Manila, Batangas and Subic Bay through 31 December. Our view: this is a trade-imbalance problem, not a labour one. Manila’s main terminals shipped out 1.231 million TEU (twenty-foot units) against 1.37 million imported in January to July, according to customs data cited by Tradlinx. Expect tighter space, firmer rates and detention fights. Our call: another major carrier restricts Manila bookings or adds a congestion surcharge by end of November.

Manila’s empty-box glut stops trucks, and Hapag-Lloyd shuts Philippine bookings until 31 December
Only about 10% of volumes were moving out of Manila’s ports, The Loadstar reported on 5 October, as customs brokers and port truckers stopped work over thousands of empty containers they say shipping lines will not take back. A day later, truck operators began a three-day “truck holiday”. Hapag-Lloyd had already suspended new bookings to Manila, Batangas and Subic Bay from all origins, and says the ban stays in place through 31 December.
Our view: this is not really a labour dispute. It is a trade-imbalance problem that has finally run out of yard space. The Philippines imports far more full boxes than it fills for export, and the empties have nowhere to go. The stoppage is the symptom. Hapag-Lloyd’s ban is a major carrier saying out loud that it cannot fix the problem on its current network, and we do not think it will be the only one.

What happened this week

The protest began on 5 October with a voluntary “digital protest and rest day” by brokers, according to a Tradlinx explainer, which says it had been postponed from 28 September and was planned to run about a week. Brokers withheld the digital processing needed to release cargo rather than holding a rally, InsiderPH reported.
Reynaldo Soliman, chair of the Practicing Customs Brokers and Port Truckers Alliance, urged brokers not to secure gate passes, book trucks or release shipments until carriers cut the empties at Manila, according to The Loadstar. He warned the protest could “last a week”. “Even though we want to ship, we cannot move,” he said.
On Tuesday 6 October, truck operators suspended operations, the Daily Tribune reported. The Confederation of Truckers Associations of the Philippines (CTAP) was protesting port congestion and rising costs, including slow empty-container returns. Not every trucker joined. ACTOO, which Tradlinx says represents roughly 60 percent of port-based truckers, said its members would not take part. The protesting associations said demonstrations would continue “until stakeholders guarantee the prompt evacuation of empty containers”, according to a Kuehne+Nagel customer update.
Hapag-Lloyd’s suspension came first. Tradlinx, citing the carrier’s advisory, says it covers new bookings from all origins and trade lanes, and blames severe limits on depot space and empty-container return capacity. Customer service is contacting customers whose bookings are cancelled or need new arrangements.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has stepped in. Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno wrote to the Port of Manila suggesting boxes waiting more than 10 days be moved offsite, according to The Loadstar. No settlement had been announced in reports through 9 October.

Why the boxes are stuck

The truckers’ complaint is simple. A truck that delivers an import must return the empty box to a depot chosen by the shipping line before it can take the next job. If the depot is full, the truck and its chassis sit idle with the box still on top.
“Sometimes it takes one week, two weeks, and sometimes even 40 days before we can return the empty container,” CTAP president Mary Zapata told the Daily Tribune. CTAP told The Loadstar that trucks were left “literally holding the mess”. “We are not making any money, and the problem has become very serious,” Zapata said. Operators keep paying chassis rentals and wages while trucks are tied up, the Tribune reported.
The money adds up. InsiderPH reported detention charges (fees for keeping a carrier’s container beyond the free days) of P1,000 to P3,000 per container per day, and said some parties were charging P15,000 or more just to obtain a return slot. Soliman has asked the Department of Trade and Industry to investigate that practice, according to InsiderPH.
The trade numbers explain why. From January to July 2026, Manila’s two main international terminals took in 1.37 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) of imports and shipped out 1.231 million TEU of laden and empty boxes, according to BOC data cited by Tradlinx. That is about 139,000 TEU more in than out in seven months. The BOC puts that release rate at 90%, down from 95% in 2025 and 98% in 2024. At MICT, the Manila International Container Terminal run by ICTSI, exports were 720,261 TEU against 986,837 TEU of imports.
Port officials have argued for months that the terminals are not congested. In February, Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) general manager Jay Santiago said “Higher utilization does not mean congestion,” according to GMA News, and blamed a “lack of yard facilities which should be provided by shipping lines”. At the time, MICT’s yard was at 84.16%, against a PPA optimum of 70%. The problem has been in plain sight all year.

This has happened before

Manila has been here at least twice in the past 12 years.
In 2014, a city truck ban imposed in February left Manila ports holding about 17,000 TEU of empties by July, according to PortCalls. On 9 July, PPA’s Juan Sta. Ana said: “In about four weeks we’ll be back to normal.” Three weeks later the PPA said recovery would take three to four months, with yard utilisation at 96% after peaking at 110% in May. Shipping lines sent sweeper vessels (ships that carry only empties out) and ICTSI offered space at Subic as a free temporary depot. On 16 October 2014, a month after the truck ban was lifted, PortCalls still counted 56,100 empty containers across container yards and consignee warehouses.
In 2018, PortCalls reported that off-dock depots in Metro Manila were at 90% of capacity and that the average time empties sat there had doubled to 30 days from 15. The international shipping lines’ association put the import-to-export container ratio at 3:1.
Two lessons stand out. Official recovery timelines were far too short. And relief came when carriers paid to move empties out, not from talks with truckers.

What it means for forwarders and shippers

First, capacity. Hapag-Lloyd’s Philippine cargo has to go somewhere. It lands on other carriers’ ships into the same terminals. Expect tighter space and firmer rates into Manila from Asia, Europe and North America, and expect carriers to price the risk in through congestion or equipment surcharges.
Second, the obvious workaround is partly closed. Subic and Batangas are underused alternatives to Manila, Context.ph reported in February. But Hapag-Lloyd’s ban covers both. Batangas has had its own trouble taking empties. CMA CGM advisories cited by Tradlinx show Batangas Container Terminal suspending empty receiving twice in September.
Third, detention and demurrage (D&D, the daily charges for keeping a carrier’s box too long in and out of the port). The clock usually runs until the empty is accepted at the depot, so a refused return becomes the consignee’s bill. Tradlinx works through a Maersk example: a 40-foot box held 25 days comes to PHP 85,000 under a July 2024 tariff, before terminal storage. A BOC draft order, not final as of 5 October, would stop lines charging detention where they fail to assign a return yard on time. Until it is final, forwarders should send return requests in writing before free time ends and keep every timestamp.
Fourth, the market read. AB Capital Securities said in a note published by Philstar on 9 October: “We see this primarily as a landside logistics bottleneck,” not a sign that MICT has reached its physical handling capacity. It expects the earnings hit to ICTSI to be manageable, and added: “The bigger risk is if other carriers follow suit.” We agree with both halves. The quay is fine. The roads, depots and paperwork are not.
Fifth, perishables. MICT’s reefer yard (the powered stacks for refrigerated boxes) went past 100% on several days in February, according to Tradlinx. Soliman has tied the carriers’ failure to remove empties directly to the country’s rising food prices, The Loadstar reported, and Zapata told the Daily Tribune: “If the movement of our cargo were faster, the prices of goods would not be this high.” Importers of chilled and frozen food have the least room to wait, so they should be first in line for space on carriers still accepting Manila cargo, and first to consider splitting urgent lots into air freight.

What we expect next

Our call: Hapag-Lloyd keeps its Philippine suspension to 31 December rather than lifting it early, and at least one more major carrier announces a Manila booking restriction, congestion surcharge or empty-repositioning charge before the end of November. We also expect the government to order empties moved out of Manila to off-dock yards or other ports within six weeks, as it did in 2014.
The truck stoppage itself will probably end within days. The backlog will not. Context.ph notes that Manila congestion peaks with imports from the fourth quarter through the first, which is exactly when this lands. Shippers bringing goods into Luzon for Christmas or early 2027 should plan on extra weeks, not extra days.

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