ICTSI to carry on with Manila North Harbor modernization plans

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International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) will continue most of the rehabilitation plans for Manila North Harbor, but will also make several adjustments in how it modernizes the domestic terminal, according to one of its officials.

“Many of the things that are in there we will continue; a few of the others we will try to change,” ICTSI senior vice president and head of Asia Pacific and Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) Christian Gonzalez told PortCalls in a chance interview.

ICTSI in September 2017 acquired 34.83% shares of Petron Corporation in domestic port operator Manila North Harbour Port, Inc. (MNHPI) for P1.75 billion. MNHPI owns the 25-year concession to modernize and operate Manila North Harbor.

The port operator said the acquisition “will allow ICTSI to contribute its experience, expertise and state-of the-art technology and infrastructure to enhance the operational efficiency of the domestic terminal in the Port of Manila and improve the traffic condition in Metro Manila.”

As with any long-term modernization plan, Gonzalez said “you have to change with the technology you have,” as well as equipment and the demands of the market.

“Right now it’s really operational expertise, global best practice, increasing and improving safety standards, putting in technology. All of these take time and this is what we’ve been doing since we acquired the 34% and we’ll continue to push these improvements through,” he added.

Asked if ICTSI would replicate processes implemented at MICT at Manila North Harbor, Gonzalez replied, “It’s very important in this kind of things that we, as the operator, don’t say we do it one way and that’s how you guys have to adopt.”

“On the other hand, it is also important that the customers on the other side don’t say this is how it’s been for 40 years and we don’t want to adapt. Everybody has to adapt—the operator, the truckers, the shippers, the shipping lines, port authority, everybody. Everybody has good ideas. Unfortunately, there has been inability in the past for the right ideas to kinda flow through.”

“What we’re trying to do now is make sure that everybody has a say, everybody has an opportunity to push what they think is the right way and as the operator, we’ll work with the customers and the port authority to make sure that the final set of processes taken into consideration is the best of what we can deliver and the best of what the customers can do,” Gonzalez further stated.

He said he has pushed to have Navis SPARCS N4, Manila North Harbor’s terminal operating system (TOS), fully implemented, as it has not been fully utilized despite its purchase some years ago.

The full implementation last February, however, caused delays and additional cost for stakeholders. Implementation of the new TOS has improved now, though there are still issues not connected with the TOS, such as some shipping lines experiencing shortage in deployed manpower and equipment, according to the Philippine Liner Shipping Association.

TABS in North Harbor?

Asked if ICTSI would implement the Terminal Appointment Booking System (TABS)—a web-based booking system for trucks going to and coming out of the port that is being implemented in Manila’s two international terminals—Gonzalez said, “I don’t know yet.”

He noted that Manila North Harbor “has a very different profile in the sense that the dwell time of containers is very low” and unlike international terminals, movement of cargoes here does not depend on customs operations.

He explained that an appointment system in the domestic terminal “may not be the right approach,” but that there may be other measures that will enable shipping lines and customers to give the port operator advance information.

“So we’re still studying what the operations need and what customers need and once we have a better idea we’ll talk to the port authority and get that across,” he said.

Manila North Harbor is a 52.5-hectare multipurpose terminal that caters to domestic containerized and general cargoes, as well as passengers. With the MNHPI acquisition, ICTSI will have interests in both international and domestic port operations in Manila. ICTSI operates and develops ports around the world, with MICT as its flagship operation. Its subsidiaries in the Philippines also operate ports in Subic, Misamis Oriental, Davao del Norte, and General Santos City. – Roumina Pablo