SITC starts Subic service

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Subic_BayIntra-Asia carrier SITC is now connecting Subic port with Japan and China.

The liner’s new service calling Hakata-Shanghai-Xiamen-Manila-Subic-Xiamen-Shanghai-Busan-Hakata answers Subic port’s call for a direct link to China and Japan.

In an email to PortCalls, SITC export and marketing division head Owen Huang said the MV Sicilia 1436S, which has a capacity of 1,800 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), called Subic’s New Container Terminal (NCT) 2 on October 17.

He added the call is part of SITC’s development plans in the Philippines.

Aside from Subic, SITC also calls Manila South Harbor, Manila International Container Port, and Batangas port, which connects to China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the Subic Maritime Technical Working Group, composed of government and private sector representatives whose main goal is to attract more shippers to use Subic port, also identified Singapore as one of the ports that Subic needs to connect to.

Japanese liner NYK Line, according to Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman Roberto Garcia, is planning to start a Singapore-Subic service soon.

Currently, three shipping lines call Subic port regularly – APL, Wan Hai and Swire Shipping.

The need to boost usage of Subic port has gained much currency since the Manila truck ban was imposed in February. While the policy has been indefinitely lifted last month, it had already caused massive congestion at Manila ports, which industry stakeholders said will not be completely licked for months.

As a result of the truck ban, container volumes at Subic have surged.

Throughput for the first eight months of 2014 at Subic’s NCT 1 jumped 54.58% to 34,746.25 TEUs from the 22,437.75 TEUs in the same period last year.

For the month of August alone, NCT 1 posted the highest monthly traffic in 2014 of 8,770.25 TEUs, a 243.7% hike from 2,551.75 TEUs recorded in August 2013.

At the recent Northern Luzon Shipping Summit in Fontana Clark, Pampanga, SBMA chair Garcia said Subic port will almost double its 2014 volume to 70,000 TEUs from 38,000 TEUs in 2013. – Roumina Pablo