ICTSI To widen PH network

Billionaire Enrique Razon Jr.’s International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) is studying fresh port investments in Visayas and Mindanao, shifting from its long-running focus on growing overseas.

The plan, partly in response to President Duterte’s call for the development of areas outside Metro Manila, could involve making unsolicited offers for existing ports or proposing entirely new projects, Christian R. Gonzalez, ICTSI senior vice president and regional head of Asia Pacific, said last week.

“We are keeping an eye out, seeing what we can do in the rest of the Philippines,” said Gonzalez, who also heads ICTSI’s flagship Manila International Container Terminal (MICT).

He said ICTSI was looking to build heavy port infrastructure, such as cranes, in “medium-sized” markets in Visayas, where it has no operations, as well as in Mindanao.

Save for Manila North Harbor, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro, no other Philippine port had the kind of infrastructure needed to lure large international shipping companies, he said.

Gonzalez said ICTSI would steer clear of well-served areas, such as Cebu, and instead focus on locations to “create value for different provinces, and then promote those places as international ports.”

Gonzalez declined to name specific targets, saying these were under study.