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SUBIC
BAY FREEPORT—After posting record earnings in a decade,
the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) expressed
optimism that its seaport is well on its way to become a
maritime center for
Southeast Asia.
Besides
announcing that the agency earned P228.3 million in
2007—one of the highest recorded in ten years—SBMA
chairman Feliciano Salonga also said that “significant
improvements” were recorded in terms of ship calls,
cargo volume and gross registered tonnage last year.
“As we
all know, 2006 was a banner year for the SBMA as an
investment- promotion agency. But our performance
indicators in the past two years have generally been on
the upswing,” he said.
Salonga,
who is pursuing an aggressive program in the free port’s
maritime sector, said that the seaport department
actually surpassed its revenue record in 2006 by 19.6
percent.
This, he
said, represented a steady growth rate in the last three
years—from P181.08 million in 2005 to P190.87 million in
2006 and P228.30 last year.
Revenues
reached P218.15 million last year, with only P10.15
million in collectibles, according to SBMA records.
During
the same period, the number of ships which visited the
former US naval base went up to 1,778 from 1,576 in
2006.
With the
increase in ship calls, gross registered tonnage—the
total carrying capacities of vessels which docked at the
SBMA—also rose from 8,446,073 in 2006 to 10,843,144 in
2007.
Meanwhile, the free port also processed more 20-foot
metal containers—the contraption used to ship goods—last
year. From handling 34,601 metal boxes, the agency
handled 36,450 containers.
Bulk and
break bulk cargo tonnage also grew from a total of
1,592,212 tons in 2006 to 1,899,780 tons in 2007.
According to Salonga, the port’s strong performance, as
well as several positive developments last year,
“presage the emergence of Subic as a maritime center.”
He
recognized the contribution of the multibillion-dollar
Hanjin shipyard project at the free port which recently
expanded, resulting in an additional $684 million
investment.
Salonga
also noted the return of the Auxiliary Floating Drydock
Medium-5 to Subic, a piece of equipment formerly owned
by the US Navy, which is currently being used and
managed by a Filipino company.
“I
strongly believe that this will impact tremendously, not
only on the revival of the ship-repair industry here but
also on our status as an emerging maritime center,”
Salonga said. “As
Subic’s modern port facility becomes fully operational this year,
we can expect not only more cargo to pass through
Subic,
but also our export receipts to increase.”
According to the SBMA seaport department, the top five
containerized exports last year consisted of electronics
parts, plywood and veneer, textile and garments,
machineries and parts, and metal products.
On the
other hand, the five biggest imported commodities were
motor vehicles, electronics parts, cigarettes, duty-free
merchandise, and iron and steel.
Top
noncontainerized exports, meanwhile, were composed of
motor vehicles, machineries and parts, plywood and
veneer, textile and garments, and fruits and vegetables.
Imports
in this category were mostly petroleum products, motor
vehicles, steel and metal, machineries and parts, and
electrical parts.
Last
year, the SBMA also finished several port-development
projects in a bid to push Subic as a maritime service
and logistics hub. These include the first phase of the
New Container Terminal project (NCT-1), the marine
terminal, the Nabasan and Boton wharves, and a
three-story port administration building.
The SBMA
seaport department has also installed a vessel-traffic
management system consisting of top-of-the-line hardware
and software systems.
By the
last quarter of this year, the NCT-2 will also be
operational, said Atty. Ferdinand L. Hernandez, SBMA
deputy administrator for operations.
This
will assist the SBMA in pursuing a more aggressive
port-marketing strategy and promote Subic’s capabilities
and readiness to absorb global demand for vast logistics
and transshipment, Hernandez added. |
