Posted on July 13, 2017
By Imee Charlee C. Delavin, BusinesWorld
ICTSI Senior Vice-President and Regional Head of Asia Pacific Christian R. Gonzalez said the firm is currently monitoring three port projects in Africa, one in Asia, and another in an undisclosed location.
“We’re pushing ahead with… at least five projects… one, I can’t tell you where, but that’s fairly imminent, and then another one also in the Asian region that we’re actively bidding for and then there’s three opportunities in Africa that we’re seriously continuing to push for,” Mr. Gonzalez said in a recent interview.
“[H]opefully [all within the year],” he added when asked for the timeline of the port auctions.
ICTSI earlier said it is looking to bid for new projects this year to sustain its growth momentum amid headwinds that continue to affect global trade, including the protectionist policy of the Trump administration.
The Enrique K. Razon-led port operator made a bid for Greece’s second-largest port last May, but lost out to German private equity firm Deutsche Invest Equity Partners. ICTSI has said this will have “no effect” on the company’s outlook for its business this year.
“At least five [projects]… three in Africa, one in Asia, one I can’t tell you,” Mr. Gonzalez said, noting that the last one is “absolutely not” located in the United States.
The ICTSI executive noted that adding more terminals around the world will help the company minimize the impact of risks in some of the ports it operate.
“We have a very diversified portfolio, the good thing about having a very diversified portfolio is when you kind of feel stress in one region of the world, it’s mitigated by benefits and success in other regions of the world,” Mr. Gonzalez said.
ICTSI President and Chairman Enrique K. Razon, Jr. earlier said to minimize risks from US protectionism, the company will continue to grow by adding more terminals around the world. The ports tycoon is confident ICTSI will get “more contracts” as global risks also bring opportunities.
ICTSI operates 30 terminals in 20 countries.
For its Philippine operations, ICTSI is focusing on expanding services for larger ships as it plans to implement dredging activities to reach its target depth of 13.5 meters.
“Our focus now is really on big ships, that’s the trend that we’re seeing,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “We’re dredging quite soon, that’s also very important for bigger ships.”
The company has also ordered five post-Panamax quay cranes capable of servicing up to 13,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) boxships to expand the capacity of the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT).
The acquisition of the quay cranes, as well as the construction of another berth, is part of the company’s $80-million capital equipment program for the MICT, as it anticipates a projected increase in container movement due to the growing Philippine economy.
The post-Panamax quay cranes — two of which will be deployed at Berth 5 of the MICT, while the other pair will go to Berths 6 and 7, and the fifth crane will be used at Berth 3 — have a maximum reach of 20 containers across and twin lift rated load capability, allowing it to service single-ocean box ships. This would allow MICT to service new generation vessels with capacities of up to 13,000 TEUs.
“[For Berth 7], we’ve contracted our key engineering contractors for the design, so that’s pushing forward. We’re also now starting the works for the new barge terminal in Cavite and MICT, and we bought five cranes for Manila so that goes to 18 from 13,” he added, noting that three of the cranes are “arriving in February and two will be arriving the following year.”
The $30-million common-user barge and roll on-roll off terminal in Tanza, Cavite, which will support government initiatives to decongest Metro Manila roads, is seen starting “basic operation” by the first quarter of 2018.
The terminal will be located within a six-hectare property in Tanza, Cavite will have a direct link to MICT. It was identified as the prime location for the project because of the province’s high economic density — in addition to the Cavite Export Processing Zone, which houses over 400 actively operating companies. Phase 1 of CGT’s development will support a total throughput of 115,000 TEUs every year.
ICTSI saw its net income rise by 23% in the first quarter of 2017 to $51.7 million from the $42.2 million it earned during the same period last year on the back of strong volume growth and revenues from its port operations.
Last year, it reported that attributable net income increased 207% to $180 million.
Source: BusinessWorld
