Listed Philippine port operator International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) reported double-digit growth in its financials and throughput for the first nine months of 2013, due to the continuous growth in international and domestic trade in most of its terminals.
Net income attributable to equity holders rose 22% to $128.8 million from $105.8 million earned from January to September last year, due to strong revenue growth and margin improvement in certain key terminals and the contribution from the new terminal in Karachi, Pakistan.
Consolidated net income grew 27% to $135.7 million from $106.8 million.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) jumped 26% to $285.5 million from $225.8 million.
Port revenue from January to September reached US$624.7 million, a 19% increase over the $524.7 million reported in the same period last year.
For the third quarter alone, port revenue reached $211 million, a 17% improvement from last year’s $179.7 million in July-September.
Net income also surged 29% to $45.9 million from $35.6 million.
Capital expenditures for the first half of 2013 amounted to $357.9 million, approximately 65% of the $550 million capital expenditure budget for the full year 2013.
The budget is mainly allocated for the completion of ICTSI’ terminal development projects in Mexico and Argentina, and the ramp-up of construction activities in Colombia and Davao.
The port operator handled 4.628 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) for the first nine months this year, a 13.3% increment from 4.084 million TEUs in the same period in 2012.
The improvement was due to continuous growth in international and domestic trade in most of the ICTSI’s terminals and the volume generated by its two new terminals–Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) in Karachi, Pakistan, and PT Olah Jasa Andal (OJA) in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Excluding volume from its two new terminals and the effect of the cessation of the operations in Syria effective January 2013, organic volume growth increased 1%.
The company’s seven key terminal operations in Manila, Brazil, Poland, Madagascar, China, Ecuador and Pakistan accounted for 79% of the group’s consolidated volume in the first nine months of 2013.
For the third quarter alone, volume improved 16% reaching 1.601 million TEUs compared with the 1.386 million TEUs handled in 2012.
The port’s Asia operations reported a strong 23.3% growth followed by Americas at 3.4% for the first nine months. Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, however, dropped 4.2%.
The Asia segment, which comprises terminals in the Philippines, China, Indonesia and Pakistan, handled 2.813 million TEUs than last year’s 2.282 million TEUs.
The growth was mainly due to volume contribution of new terminals, PICT and OJA, the continuous improvement in trade particularly at Manila International Container Terminal, and higher exports of agricultural, industrial and lumber products at Mindanao International Container Terminal Services, Inc.
Excluding PICT and OJA, Asia operations would have increased by 0.8% in 2013.
The growth in volume was mainly reduced by the downturn in banana production and exports at Davao Integrated Port and Stevedoring Services Corp. and the reshuffling of Japan routes at Yantai Rising Dragon International Container Terminals Ltd.
The Asia segment accounted for 60.8% of the consolidated volume for the nine months.
ICTSI is involved in 27 terminal concessions and port development projects in 19 countries worldwide. There are three ongoing port development projects in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina; and three recently concluded negotiations to manage and operate ports in Nigeria and Honduras and develop and manage another port in Davao.
The project in Mexico test serviced its first vessel in August 2013 and is expected to formally begin commercial operations before the end of 2013 while the projects in Honduras and Argentina are expected to start operations in November 2013 and January 2014, respectively.
Photo from www.ictsi.com
