ICTSI to put up terminal in Calamba
Businessman Enrique Razon Jr.’s International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) has formed a venture for a “one-stop” inland container terminal in Calamba City, Laguna, which will enable it to support its operations in Manila where expansion options are limited.
ICTSI said in a stock exchange filing that the project, which would start operations on March 2, would be pursued with its subsidiary IW Cargo Handlers Inc., along with Nippon Container Terminals Co. Ltd., Transnational Diversified Corp. and NYK- Fil-Japan Shipping Corp.
The venture will be called Laguna Gateway Inland Container Terminal Inc. Its main purpose “is to provide services connected with, or incidental to, the management or operation of container depots, terminals, yards, and/or freight stations in the Philippines,” according to the disclosure.
The Calamba inland container terminal, specifically, will operate as an extension of the seaport operations of ICTSI’s Manila International Container Terminal, the filing showed.
In particular, the inland container terminal is intended to function as a regional logistics hub, which will service and support the operations of exporters and importers, both within and outside the economic zones in the “Labarzon area,” referring to the provinces of Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.
“Only 58 kilometers from Metro Manila, the ICT will be situated on a 21-hectare property, strategically located near various economic export zones with an already existing adjacent railroad,” ICTSI said.
Already, four out of 21 hectares of the project has been developed and available for immediate operations, it added.
“Envisioned to be the first of its kind in magnitude and operations, the [inland container terminal] will be developed as a 24/7 state of the art facility with cutting edge terminal systems and equipment,” the company reported.
ICTSI owns or operates a total of 29 common user container terminals located in 21 countries, with a focus on facilities having total annual throughputs ranging from 50,000 to 2,500,000 twenty-foot equivalent units.
Its profits in the nine months through September 2014 rose by 5 percent to $135.7 million, buoyed by higher revenues and nonrecurring gains.
The company said revenue from port operations hit $779.2 million—up 25 percent.
It noted that the gains were partially offset by increased depreciation charges and higher levels of interest expense driven by the commencement of commercial operations at Manzanillo, Mexico and Puerto Cortes, Honduras. Miguel R. Camus
