Strike hits ICTSI operations in Poland
Unit moves to avert crisis
By Riza T. Olchondra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:32:00 03/25/2008
MANILA, Philippines--A strike stalled the operations of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) in Poland but has not resulted in massive losses--at least not yet, the company said Monday.
"There is not much container volume affected yet because of the holiday from Maundy Thursday until Easter Monday in Poland," ICTSI finance manager Arthur Tabuena said in a phone interview.
Earlier in the day, ICTSI said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange that its subsidiary Baltic Container Terminal (BCT) had sent an advisory that a labor strike was declared at the port of Gdynia on the morning of March 20.
The local labor union called the strike because of a deadlock in the 2008 salary negotiations, ICTSI said.
"BCT management will restart talks after the holidays," Tabuena said.
A prolonged strike at Gdynia, Poland, is seen to adversely affect ICTSI's operations. Poland was one of ICTSI's strongest growing ports along with Brazil and Madagascar.
Operations in Poland contributed 245,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to the company's total container volume of three million TEUs in 2007.
According to ICTSI's unaudited report dated March 3, 2008, its net income grew by 52 percent to P2.8 billion in 2007 from P1.8 billion in 2006.
Revenue rose 27 percent to P15 billion from P11.9 billion.
Contributions from international operations grew 44 percent to P7.4 billion from P5.1 billion, accounting for 49 percent of 2007 revenue compared with 43 percent in 2006.
Headquartered in the Philippines, 20-year-old ICTSI is a developer of international ports and terminals with a global port network spanning 11 countries on four continents.
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