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INTERNATIONAL Container Terminal Services Inc., the
country’s largest port operator, will start to expand
the capacity of its flagship facility in Manila next
year after breaking the trend of its flat-growth volume
last year.
In a
company report, ICTSI said it would expand the capacity
of its Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) to
handle more than 2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent
units) by 2009 from its current capacity of handling 1.6
million TEUs.
Except
for some scanners and other equipment that the United
States Homeland Security placed in the facility to
combat the movement of goods to be used by terrorists,
the expansion would be the most significant improvement
of the terminal since 2004.
The move
comes after the publicly listed company has broken the
trend of flat growth from 2004 to 2007 of handling 1.2
million TEUs.
Last
year ICTSI said in the report that MICT’s volume reached
1.37 million TEUs, or about 63 percent of the total
international container traffic at the Port of Manila.
MICT
first hit the million-TEU mark in 2002, and started to
post record cargo volume since then.
No
details were given as to how much would be used to
expand the capacity. Earlier, ICTSI officials said they
would need at least P1 billion for the expansion
project, which may include modernizing its equipment and
adding new ones.
If the
planned expansion pushes through, MICT would still be
the biggest facility of ICTSI among its facilities
worldwide, followed by its Chinese terminal with a
capacity of handling 1 million TEUs, and then its Syrian
port with 900,000 TEUs.
By next
year, ICTSI would have a total capacity of 7 million
TEUs from the current 5 million TEUs, but that already
include its Colombian port, which is still in the
planning stage of construction and will able to handle
up to 500,000 TEUs.
The
other ports that ICTSI would also expand next year
include its facilities in Brazil, Poland, Indonesia,
Ecuador and Georgia.
ICTSI,
controlled by Enrique K. Razon Jr., was mainly formed to
bid for the privatization of MICT in 1988.
In its
earlier commitment to the Philippine Ports Authority,
the owner of the port, ICTSI is expected to construct
the sixth berth, depending on the growth of volumes at
MICT, with a plan to commence construction in 2008.
ICTSI’s
full-year unaudited net income in 2007 grew by 52
percent to P2.8 billion from the previous year’s P1.83
billion. Overseas operations continue to drive its
growth, though at a slower pace.
ICTSI
said revenues from its foreign ports account for 51
percent of the total cash flow, down from 60 percent in
2006 as a result of start-up losses of the new terminals
that the company acquired in 2007. |
