With port operations absent from the government’s public-private partnership project list, port operator Asian Terminals Inc. is eyeing possible ventures overseas, particularly around Asia.
In an interview last Friday, ATI president Eusebio Tanco said the company continued to be on the prowl for new businesses.
“We’re looking at overseas ventures. We’ve been talking to our partners to identify areas where we can participate. We have a lot of good middle management people and we think they can help us (in our overseas operations). We don’t have anything specific yet, but we’re looking at Asian countries,” he told the Inquirer.
ATI operates the Manila South Harbor, which provides a wide range of port services, including arrastre, stevedoring, storage, domestic cargo-handling and passenger terminal operations and international container freight station.
The company’s contract with the Philippine Ports Authority to manage and develop the South Harbor port lasts until 2038.
Earlier in the year, ATI spent P2 billion to acquire two new cranes and add a new container yard to its South Harbor operations.
Apart from South Harbor, ATI also operates the Batangas and General Santos ports. The Batangas Port is managed by ATI subsidiary ATI Batangas Inc., while the General Santos Port is a joint undertaking between ATI and International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI).
ATI, unlike ICTSI, has focused largely on the local market and has not considered expanding overseas.
ICTSI over the years has acquired interests in various overseas port operations, including ports and container terminals in Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Croatia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Japan, Madagascar, Mexico, Poland, Syria and the United States.
It also has local port operations in Manila, Subic Bay, Batangas, Davao City and Misamis Oriental.
While ATI would continue to expand its operations in the Philippines, Tanco said the port operator, given the opportunity, was now opening its doors to overseas business endeavors.