Manila-based port operator International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is on track with construction plans for newly acquired port, Hijo International Port (HIP), in Tagum City, Davao Del Norte, southern Philippines.
“We are very positive about Hijo despite conditions in Davao due to the devastation of typhoon (Pablo) and the China embargo on bananas,” a ranking official of ICTSI recently said.
“Phase I of the construction of Hijo port will go as scheduled and will be completed in the next 16 to 24 months,” the official said.
Early last month, typhoon Pablo (international name Bopha) hit Davao and its nearby provinces destroying about 14,000 hectares of banana and fruit plantations in the region; rehabilitation is expected to take from nine to 12 months.
ICTSI envisions HIP as its second-biggest container terminal in the Philippines, next only to its flagship Manila International Container Terminal.
Based on plans, Hijo will have an annual capacity of 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and will have an area of over 50 hectares and a 12-meter draft berth. The facility will be capable of servicing between five and seven vessels at any one time.
The port is currently within a 10.3-hectare area, has two berths at 127 meters and 150 meters long, and two cargo sheds. Annual capacity is about 300,000 metric tons of mostly bananas.
Meanwhile, ICTSI said its problem with the Anflocorp Group, involving the name and logo of the latter, has been amicably settled.
Anflocorp is developing the Davao International Container Terminal (DICT) in nearby Panabo City, Davao del Norte.
The DICT name used by Anflocorp is similar to how ICTSI names its subsidiaries. DICT’s logo was also similar to ICTSI’s.
The parties agreed that the name DICT will be maintained but the DICT logo will no longer use the image of the crane in the same color as seen in ICTSI’s logo.
Photo provided by Christopher Paringit
