Economic reopening lifts Asian Terminals’ 9-month earnings

Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) booked a 21-percent growth in its net income as of end-September as operations picked up with the further reopening of the economy.

In its quarterly report, the listed port operator noted that its nine-month attributable net income climbed to P1.81 billion from the previous year’s P1.5 billion.

Net earnings for the third quarter, meanwhile, surged by 77 percent to P667.64 million from P376.26 million in the same period a year ago.

The strong performance in the January to September period was driven by its revenues that grew by 19 percent to P9.78 billion.

The company noted that revenues from South Harbor international containerized cargo and Batangas Container Terminal improved by 16.8 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively.

ATI Batangas’s topline figures rose by 68 percent due to “higher RoRo (roll-on, roll-off) volumes and higher number of passengers.”

More expensive fuel costs and higher energy consumption raised its equipment running expenses by 25.3 percent to P612.7 million in the nine-month period.

As of end-September, its total assets and liabilities stood at P33.36 billion and P12.43 billion, respectively.

For this year,  ATI had set aside P5-billion worth of capital expenditures to fund the ports and logistics infrastructure projects in Manila, Batangas and Laguna.

It also covers the purchase of “more modern and eco-friendly equipment in step with its growth strategy, and in line with its investment commitment with the port authority.”

The expansion project, ATI said, would boost the trade gateway’s annual throughput capacity to nearly 2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) by 2024 from 1.4 million TEUs at present.

“As a trade enabler, we are very bullish on our infrastructure projects which would enable us to deliver faster, safer, and market-responsive services to our customers and further contribute to the country’s postpandemic economic recovery,” ATI executive director William Khoury said earlier.