More int’l shipping lines calling on Subic Port

Subic port. FILE PHOTO

More shipping lines operating within Southeast Asia have expressed interest to use the Subic Port to move containerized and bulk cargo shipments, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said Thursday.

In a statement, the SBMA said that the commercial vessel MV Sicilia recently arrived at the Subic port.

Three more foreign container ships are expected to arrive and unload at the port within the next few weeks.

SBMA chair Roberto Garcia said in the statement that the container ship MV Sicilia made its maiden voyage on the Xiamen-Subic route recently and unloaded its cargo at the New Container Terminal (NCT) 2.

“The arrival of Sicilia on her maiden voyage to Subic Bay may be a precursor of more good times to come,” Garcia said.

The MV Sicilia, a 927-ton Liberian flag container ship with 21 crewmen and officers, sailed to Manila and then to Subic Bay from Xiamen, China.

The vessel is owned by China-based SITC Container Lines Philippines Inc.

Sicilia unloaded products from Guangxi, Sichuan and Shanghai, all in China, for Orica Philippines in Limay, Bataan; Nestle Philippines Inc. in Cabuyao, Laguna; and Manila World Transport Inc. in Metro Manila, respectively, bringing in 22 containers.

In the same statement, SBMA Seaport Dept. general manager Jerome Martinez said that aside from MV Sicilia, three more foreign container ships would be arriving in Subic direct from their port of departure.

These container ships were not diverted from the Port of Manila as a result of port congestion.

These ships intentionally made the Subic port part of their itinerary, Martinez said.

Another shipping company, the NYK Line, is also seriously thinking of establishing a Subic-Singapore route as Singapore will be opening Europe, Africa and Middle East to exporters and importers.

Garcia earlier reported that there was a proposal for a Shanghai-Subic route so that ships would no longer pass through Kaohsiung.

With more ships calling on Subic, which used to be an American naval facility, Garcia hoped that the cargo volume at the Subic’s container port would almost double to 70,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from only 38,000 TEUs in 2013.

In preparation for the expected increase in traffic flow at the freeport, the SBMA recently hosted a “Traffic Safety Forum,” aimed at finding ways to prevent traffic build-up along the main route taken by cargo trucks at the freeport.

Subic is the only port on the Western seaboard of the Philippines that can accept a sizable volume of containers.

The Subic port and the Port of Batangas were recently declared as extensions of the Port of Manila under Executive Order 172.

To help entice more shipping lines to use Subic, the SBMA cut its port fees starting Oct. 1, even if this would result in losses of about $10 million to $15 million for the state agency.

These losses represent the difference between the current harbor and berthing fees and the new and reduced rates that will be in effect for six months starting November.

The SBMA reduced the harbor fee at Subic’s new container terminal (NCT) to just $0.008 per gross register tonnage (GRT) from the current $0.046 per GRT. The berthing fee was also reduced to only $0.004 per GRT a day, from the current $0.0345 per GRT a day.

At the end of six months, the rates for both the Subic and Batangas extension ports will increase to $0.041 for the harbor fees and $0.02 for berthing fees.

These fees, however, will still be lower than the regular rates.