The country’s top two port operators promised to pour in more investments in its flagship facilities in the Port of Manila, the country’s main shipping hub, despite the projected decline in cargo volumes as a result of the global financial crisis. Publicly listed firms Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) and International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) said they will continue investing in flagship facilities in Manila but at a modest pace.
ICTSI, which is in the process of constructing a P4.5-billion facility to expand the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), the country’s largest, said it is still committed to pursue the investments even if cargo volumes are going down.
“We already have the funds [for MICT’s Berth 6]… but maybe we will spend this over a longer period of time,” said Christian R. Gonzalez, ICTSI vice president and MICT general manager.
He did not give details on the company’s plan for MICT, which can handle about 1.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units a year.
“We’ll just wait for the first quarter [2009] to end and then we’ll see what’s on the horizon,” he said.
Gonzalez said ICTSI is anchoring growth prospects for the year in five out of the 13 ports under its portfolio, namely: Davao, Syria, Georgia, Madagascar and Ecuador These ports, they believe, are “immune” from the global economic crisis.
The identified ports, which are located in underdeveloped or less-developed areas, can easily recover from the crisis as these service the relatively new markets that have lower cost requirements.
For its part, Asian Terminals Inc., operator of the Manila South Harbor, the country’s second-largest port, said it will continue several long-delayed projects this year and even promised not to lay off workers.
ATI vice president for container division Ricardo Alvarez said they are implementing the automated gate system to ease the movement of trucks in its facilities.
“As volume of cargo decreases, our service level [to clients] increases. So this is the right time to [implement] the upgrades,” Alvarez said.
He added that the company is implementing the improvements at a time when cargo volume is dropping at a steep double-digit level. “Compared with our figure posted in the first month of 2008, our volume in January 2009 is already 20-percent lower,” the ATI executive pointed out. “Import and export volumes are really down coupled by the low volume of empty containers.”
ATI has committed to invest $300.5 million from 2009 to 2022 for the rehabilitation, development and expansion of the South Harbor facilities.
The commitment depends on container volume, and the investment plan that they have submitted and approved by Philippine Ports Authority, is subject to joint review every two years, or as often as necessary as mutually agreed.