Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. has bagged a deal to redevelop and manage a container and cargo terminal at Puerto Cortes in Honduras, Central America’s largest and most significant port.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, ICTSI said it had won the international bidding for the design, financing, construction, maintenance, operation and exploitation of the specialized Puerto Cortes in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
ICTSI was awarded a 30-year port contract during a public hearing on Feb. 1, the company said in the disclosure. This further expands the global footprint of the flagship company of Filipino businessman Enrique Razon.
The container/general cargo terminal of Puerto Cortes has 1.1 meters of quay for containers, 400 meters for general cargo and 14 meters of draft that can reach 15 meters. It has a surface area of 62.2 hectares and 12 ship-to-shore cranes.
Once redeveloped by ICTSI, the port will have a capacity of about 1.8 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), which analysts estimate to be triple the current volume capacity.
“We find ICTSI’s acquisitions strategic. This could be another source of growth in the medium term, and may offset the soft trend in global volumes,” UBS said in a research note.
Within the next 60 days, ICTSI will negotiate the concession agreement leading to the signing of the contract, ICTSI treasurer Rafael Consing said in an interview.
Consing said ICTSI had already prepared a five- and 10-year investment plan for the Honduras port.
This deal scales up ICTSI’s operations in Latin America. At present, ICTSI has two existing port projects—in Ecuador and Brazil—and it expects to roll out three greenfield in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia soon.