PORT operator International Container Terminal
Services, Inc. (ICTSI) bagged the 25-year management and operations
contract for the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT), increasing
its port operations in the Mindanao area to three.
According to Phividec Industry Authority (PIA), MCT’s
present operator, the notice of award has already been forwarded
to the ICTSI main office last Monday. The formal signing of
the concession contract is tentatively scheduled next week.
“ICTSI won the 25-year operations contract for MCT after
thorough evaluation of bids which they submitted in January,”
a reliable PIA source told PortCalls.
“The ICTSI bid bested those submitted by Harbour Centre
Port Terminals, Inc. (HCPTI) and Asian Terminals, Inc. (ATI),
even exceeding what was asked for in the contract,”
the source explained.
“The bidding was conducted transparently and the losing
bidders will have no basis to question the award as MCT sought
legal opinion including from the Office of the Government
Corporate Counsel on questions related to typographical errors,”
he said.
The source, however, declined to discuss specifics of the
ICTSI bid pending the company’s formal receipt of the
PIA Board resolution on the awarding passed last Friday.
Before this bid, there were two failed ones. In the last failed
bid, HCPTI filed a motion for reconsideration before PIA claiming
it committed a typographical error in one of its entries,
the key reason it failed to meet the minimum bid requirement.
The PIA Board later denied the motion for lack of legal basis.
ATI was also immediately disqualified in one of the failed
biddings for submitting a non-conforming bid.
MCT will be the third port operated by ICTSI in Mindanao.
It already holds the cargo-handling contract for the Port
of Davao and is in joint venture with ATI in the operation
of Makar Wharf in General Santos City.
For years, MCT has been barred from accepting local and international
cargo after Oro Port, the cargo-handling operator of nearby
government port Cagayan de Oro, convinced a local court of
the exclusivity of its cargo-handling contract in and out
of Cagayan de Oro.
The court, however, lifted its temporary restraining order
in late 2006, paving the way for MCT’s commercial operation.
Located along the Macalajar Bay in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental,
MCT is seen as a catalyst to economic and industrial development
of Metro Cagayan De Oro and Northern Mindanao.
Earlier, PIA expressed bullishness about its prospects for
MCT. The terminal is forecasting a 10% increase in shipments
this year mostly from agricultural products as well as fruit
product plantations and other investing firms in the area.
In its first year of full commercial operations last year,
MCT posted a 100% jump in cargo volume to more than 80,000
TEUs from only about 38,000-40,000 TEUs in 2006.
Phase I of MCT, with an annual capacity of 270,000 TEUs, is
designed to be operated exclusively for full-container and
semi-container vessels. It is equipped with two quayside gantry
cranes with a productivity of 30 moves per hour, and four
rubber-tired gantries. Its six-hectare container yard has
a maximum stacking capacity of 8,000 TEUs at any one time
and accepts vessels up to 30,000 deadweight tons. The terminal
also has a reefer storage area with a total 262 receptacles.
Clearing of Mindanao facility for
Hanjin in full swing
THE Phividec Industrial Authority (PIA) has
started clearing operations for a 500-hectare lot in preparation
for the entry of Korean shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries,
Inc. (HHII) in the area.
The clearing operations involve relocation of several informal
settlers and are a pre-requisite to HHII’s formal signing
of a lease agreement with PIA.
PIA is the developer of a 3,000-hectare area, including the
Mindanao Container Terminal in Tagoloan and Villanueva towns
in Misamis Oriental.
“We are now concentrating on the area that will be used
by Hanjin for its training centers so that the company can
start construction,” a PIA source told PortCalls.
“Once completed, we will proceed to clear the main area
in time for the signing of the formal lease agreement scheduled
in the next couple of months; Hanjin is inclined to start
development of the yard within the year,” the source
added.
He said Hanjin is committed to spending $1 billion in the
area but will invest another $1 billion if the need arises.
The Korean shipbuilder is acquiring the PIA property for the
construction of a general manufacturing plant for its shipbuilding
facility. The plant is scheduled to start fabricating ships
in 2010, and exporting $1.7 billion worth of shipbuilding
parts and vessels by 2012.
The Mindanao plant is twice bigger than its shipbuilding complex
in Subic, Zambales, fully operational by 2010.
The Subic shipyard is expected to deliver 33 medium-sized
container vessels worth almost $3 billion in the next two
years. It also recently bagged a $2.2-billion contract to
build 21 units of container and capebulk in its Subic shipyard.
THE Department of Transportation and Communications
(DOTC) is coming up with a National Transport Plan (NTP) to
integrate all modes of transportation in the Philippines and
ease the movement of freight and passengers nationwide.
“By 2010, we hope to come out with the NTP that will
have a seamless link of all modes of transport for passengers
and cargo as the current practice of individualism or ‘kanya-kanya’
in each mode of transport leads to inefficiency that tends
to discourage possible tourists and investors to come to the
Philippines,” Transport undersecretary Maria Elena Bautista
said in a presentation at a forum hosted by the Maritime League
of the Philippines.
“We plan… to have our mass transportation such
as the LRT and MRT connected to airports and our sea ports
connected to rails and truck holding stations for the efficient
transfer of passengers and goods in the country,” Bautista,
who heads the DOTC water sector, said.
The NTP involves the integration of 31 airports, 28 seaports
and seven railway systems that will serve as the core of the
integrated transport system.
Identified airports, seaports and railways are those under
the super regions including the North Luzon Agri-Business
Quadragle, the Metro Luzon Urban Beltway Region, Central Philippines
Region, and the Mindanao Region.
The government has earmarked P380 billion to develop intermodal
transportation in the country.
For the passage sector, the country’s main airports
will be connected to the Light Rail Transit and the Metro
Rail Transit. There will be common holding areas for land
trans-portation such as jeeps and shuttle services in strategically
located areas.
Earlier, the Philippine Interisland Shipping Association said
the country’s intermodal transport does not require
an ambitious ships-to-rail, cars-to-trucks transfer of cargoes
but a cheaper sea-to-land and land-to-sea service option.
BOC eyes adjustment in advance IFM rule
from 12 to 6 hours
THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) is reducing
the time requirement in the submission of the advance inward
foreign manifest (IFM) from 12 hours prior to cargo arrival
in any Philippine port to six hours.
The decision addresses the issue of manifest submission from
countries belonging to the same time zone, making the 12-hour
requirement improbable.
“BOC is making the necessary changes as a win-win solution
still geared toward trade facilitation with minimum security
implemented to prevent the entry of illegal goods in our ports,”
Customs deputy commissioner Atty. Rey Nicolas told PortCalls.
“With the new requirement, carriers will now have no
to reason to delay the submission of such requirement to the
BOC,” Nicolas added.
The BOC is still fine tuning the Customs Administrative Order
(CAO) that will amend CAO 1-2006. The latter requires shippers
and other transport service providers such as shipping lines,
freight forwarders and cargo consolidators to submit advance
information on all inbound cargoes to evaluate the risk of
smuggling and the entry of contraband substances.
Smuggling has cost the government at least P50 billion in
duties and taxes each year.
The Association of International Shipping Lines is now testing
the submission of the advance IFM with two of its preferred
value-added service providers — E-Konek Pilipinas and
Cargo Data Exchange Center.
DEBT-SADDLED shipping firm Negros Navigation
(Nenaco) recently sold two vessels, the M/V San Lorenzo Ruiz
and M/V Mary Queen of Peace, to Liberian firms Aria Navigation
Inc and Chaston Navigation Inc for $3.46 million
Inactive since September 12, 2005, the 6,051-gross registered
ton (grt) San Lorenzo Ruiz sold for $1.6 million. The double-bottom
vessel built in Japan in 1973 has a top speed of 15 knots
and was registered in Iloilo port.
The 7,610-grt Mary Queen of Peace, idle since 2006, sold for
$1.86 million. The 1974 Japan-built vessel has a top speed
of 18 knots.
Most of the proceeds of the sale went to Bank of Commerce,
one of the creditors of Nenaco.
The sale capped three years of auction planning.
Two more vessels have been sold since 2006 — the M/V
Saint Ezekiel Moreno and M/V Princess of Negros — for
a combined price of $2.6 million.
“In the process of the sale, Nenaco has settled its
obligations to Pilipinas Shell, Avenue Asia, and the Bank
of Commerce, all of whom held chattel mortgages on the vessels,”
Nenaco receiver Monico Jacob said in a report filed before
a Manila Court handling Nenaco’s rehabilitation program.
According to the firm’s rehabilitation plan, it needs
to dispose of aging ships to operate more efficiently and
buy vessels to replace lost revenues from sold-off vessels.
The company is under a 10-year rehabilitation plan that started
in 2004 for total outstanding obligations estimated at P2.4
billion, including P1 billion in bank loans.
In its financial report, Nenaco posted a turnaround in operations
last year, booking a net income of P357.44 million for the
first 11 months of 2007, up from P449 million losses for the
same time in 2006.
“The company’s volume and revenues were on target.
However, such gains turned out to be not enough to counter
the adverse impact of the lingering fuel price hike,”
the company said in the report.
“Fuel costs exceeded budget by 17% due largely to the
blistering fuel price hike. Accordingly, fuel to revenue ration
deteriorated to 47% for the month of November 2007 compared
from its target of 4%,” it added.
Nenaco’s passage business for November 2007 serviced
57,399 passengers, 8% higher than target; it lifted freight
of 5,960 TEUs, 5% higher than its goal.
