International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) is allotting an estimated $300 million for the upgrade of the yard facilities of the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and a planned inland depot in Laguna.
“The $300 million is over [a period of] 10 years…$100 million is for Berth 7 and the remaining $200 million is for equipment, system upgrades and buildings,” ICTSI head for Asia, Pacific and the Subcontinent Christian R. Gonzalez said in an interview.
Gonzalez stressed that the figure is still an estimate. For the $100-million additional funding for Berth 7, only $35 million—allocated for yard construction—has been approved. The remaining $65 million, to be spent for construction of the berth, has not yet been given the go signal.
With the construction of the 9-hectare yard in MICT and the inland container
depot in Laguna, yard capacity is expected to increase by 20 percent, Gonzalez added.
Approval for Berth 7, Gonzalez said, has been pending since the reclamation of the area in 2012, together with Berth 6.
Gonzalez said the expansion of MICT is necessary, given that the throughput in the terminal is almost at 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), giving them the right to expand as stipulated in their contract with the government.
He said in just a year of container growth, Subic and Batangas would already be filled, thus, necessitating the expansion of MICT.
The ICTSI head hinted that while the Philippine Ports Authority is supporting their development, other parties are opposed to MICT’s expansion, as this will discourage firms from using Subic and Batangas ports.
On another planned project of the ICTSI, the inland container depot (ICD) in Laguna is likely to cost the port-management firm around $30 million for the entire venture.
Six hectares of the ICD will be utilized by ICTSI in March, while construction for the remaining 15 hectares is under way.
The firm earlier said the Laguna ICD is only one of two 20-hectare properties it purchased in anticipation of trade and economic growth; and the Laguna facility will add 250,000 TEUs to MICT’s annual capacity.
Gonzalez said for the Laguna ICD, he is targeting to cater to firms in the same locale, such as Nestlé and Universal Robina Corp.
According to a previous statement, ICTSI will be incorporating rail provisions into the new MICT yard to augment the 21-hectare Laguna ICD.
The ICD, then, will be linked to the MICT by road, and later rail, to ensure the seamless transfer of cargo from the Port of Manila to economic zones south of Metro Manila.
Without any further changes to the road network or additional truck restrictions, the firm said the completion of the new yards will raise the overall capacity of Manila’s two international ports to 4.2 million TEUs.
Asian Terminal Inc.’s South Harbor has a declared capacity of 1.2 million TEUs.