ATI gets PPA nod for revised SH master plan

ATI gets PPA nod for revised SH master plan THE Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) recently approved Asian Terminals, Inc.’s (ATI) request to revise its master plan for the development of South Harbor. The terminal operator wanted to restructure the master plan to allow the port to accommodate the unpredictable general cargo traffic flow. In recent years, there has been a drop in general cargoes handled, reflecting shippers’ preference for containerized cargoes. ATI admitted the operation of competitor Harbor Centre Port Terminals also contributed to the decline in market share in the break bulk arena. "The growth assumptions for general cargoes in the existing contract are now all wrong due to the shift to containerized cargoes, which affected not only the projections but also the planned development of the South Harbor based on our contract signed with the PPA in 1988," ATI president and CEO Jerry Rickcord explained in an earlier interview. While it won PPA approval to restructure the master plan, ATI was not successful in convincing the PPA to restructure its present contract for another 25 years and spread the balance of its $300-million commitment for the development of South Harbor over the same number of years. ATI has until year 2013 to operate the pier. "Basically, the time element is still the same, what has been affected is the development of some key infrastructure projects in the South Harbor," PPA assistant general manager for corporate and special projects Raul Santos told PortCalls in an interview. He explained that the PPA agreed to ATI’s request to revise the master plan due to the reduced traffic on general cargoes. Affected due to the revision of the master plan is the rehabilitation and extension of piers 13 to 15, piers 5 and 3 of the South Harbor. The implementation of other projects have