CONTAINER terminals in Subic Bay Freeport may not get the significant volume they need just to break even if the two major ports in Manila keep on expanding, the outgoing Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chief executive officer said.
SBMA President and CEO Armand Arreza told reporters on Monday that the success of the two new container terminals at the free port will depend on how port authorities handle the overcrowding of cargoes in the country’s capital while there is enough space in container terminals outside of Manila such as Subic Bay and Batangas Port.
“They [port authorities] need to suspend the expansion in the ports of Manila to make Subic Bay and other port terminals out of Manila work,” Arreza said.
“That is the same stand of the American Chamber of Commerce and we support it,” Arreza, who is expected to step down by next month, said
Both International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) and Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) are expanding their respective flagship facilities in Manila, based on their contract.
ICTSI is adding some 400,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) more in its Manila International Container Terminal, while ATI will start adding capacity to its Manila South Harbor facilities. Both terminals can handle total of more than two million TEUs a year, or the majority of the cargoes that enter the country.
According to Arreza, at the economic growth of the country of about 5 percent to 7 percent, the volume of containers that goes into the country can only grow as much as 150,000 TEUs a year.
Last year Subic only handled about 36,000 TEUs or almost the same volume as the previous two to three years.
Arreza said according to its simulation, the container terminals in Subic need to have 150,000 TEUs just to break even.
“The volume of the entire Central Luzon terminals is only at 80,000 TEUs so they should help us by postponing the expansion of the Manila ports,” Arreza said.
The good roads, such as the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway and North Luzon Expressway, are not helping Subic get the volume since shippers are bringing the cargoes to Manila instead of using the freeport’s facilities.
Incidentally, ICTSI also operates new container terminal (NCT) I and NCT II, which have a combined capacity of around 600,000 TEUs.
Both terminals have a berth length of 560 meters, 84 units of reefer station and 4 quay-gantry cranes.
The terminals have rubber-tired gantry runways, container stacking foundation, weigh bridges, road network and security gates. It has four brand-new cranes that can process up to 100 TEUs per hour.
The ICTSI is paying $1.5 million a year for each Subic terminal or a total of $3 million.
The shipping lines calling at NCT 1 include APL and Wan Hai, and Greek shipping line Tiger Lines which is a joint-venture company of Avin International SA and Zeniba Shipping.
Tiger Lines deploys a 750-TEU to 1,000-TEU capacity vessel for its biweekly service plying Subic, Singapore and Malaysia.
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By: VG Cabuag
Source: Business Mirror, Aug. 23, 2011
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