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RAZON-CONTROLLED
International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI)
said it is not unfazed by the economic recession in the
United States, and will continue its acquisition of
various strategic facilities in several parts of the
globe.
ICTSI
president and chief executive Enrique Razon Jr. said on
Thursday that they may continue their acquisition of
various facilities such as in Africa, the Middle East
and the Americas during the year as the need may arise.
He declined to state where these facilities will be.
“The
existing and new terminals will mitigate whatever
recession will bring to international trading,” Razon
said at the sidelines of the company’s stockholders’
meeting.
He said,
however, that they may not increase the number of ports
they already have in the
Philippines
after bagging most of the bigger ports in the country,
including Mindanao Container Terminal.
Earlier
there were fears that ICTSI’s operations will be
affected by the US recession since there will be lesser
movement of cargo.
Razon,
however, said they are quite insulated from the US
recession since most of their ports abroad, except in
Syria
that can handle 900,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent
units) per year, do not have a guaranteed cargo
throughput per year.
Thursday’s meeting also saw the rise of Jon Ramon
Aboitiz of the Aboitiz Group as ICTSI’s seventh director
replacing Dante Santos, who resigned early this year.
By next
year, ICTSI would have a total capacity of 7 million
TEUs from the current 5 million TEUs, but that already
includes its Colombian port, which is still in the
planning stage of construction and will able to handle
up to 500,000 TEUs.
Razon
said at least half of its Colombian project will be
completed this year, and the other half in 2009.
Other
ports that ICTSI would also expand next year include its
facilities in Brazil, Poland, Indonesia, Ecuador and
Georgia.
ICTSI
earlier said it would also expand the capacity of its
Manila International Container Terminal to handle 2.1
million TEUs by 2009, from its current capacity of
handling 1.6 million TEUs.
ICTSI
said in a report that MICT’s 2007 volume reached 1.37
million TEUs, or about 63 percent of the total
international container traffic at the Port of Manila.
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 growth,
though at a slower pace.
ICTSI
said its 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. |
