Japan shipping firm eyes Subic

Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Line, one of the biggest shipping companies in the world, is mulling over whether it will open a full-scale operation at the Subic Bay Freeport after it made its first port call last Saturday.

According to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), the port call was part of the ad hoc operation of NYK in Subic and would serve as basis of its assessment for opening a full operation there or have Subic only as an alternate port.

“It all depends on the outcome of the assessment after several port calls. But we hope everything would go well,” NYK Group national sales marketing and outports manager Mary Grace Golez said.

Should the assessment go well, Golez said the new route (Kaohsiung-Subic-Singapore) would open the Port of Subic to the major transshipment ports that connect to the rest of the world’s trade routes, especially in the Asean countries, Africa, Europe and North America.

The SBMA announced on Tuesday that NYK’s MV Jakarta Towers, a 688-gross tonnage Liberian-flagged cargo vessel, made its first port call at Subic on Nov. 22 and docked at the New Container Terminal (NCT)-2 after sailing a day and a half from Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Amy R. Remo