Heavier traffic boosts ICTSI’s Jan-Sept earnings

Heavier cargo movement drove a 31-percent surge in the net income of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) during the first three quarters of 2024, signaling strong trading activities.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Razon-led port operator reported that its January to September net income attributable to the parent company reached $632.58 million from $484.54 million a year ago due to higher operating income.

Nine-month revenues jumped by 14 percent to $2.01 billion from $1.76 billion in the same period last year.

The growth was attributed to consolidated cargo volume inching up by 2 percent to 9.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first three quarters from last year’s 9.45 million TEUs.

Such growth was “mainly due to the impact of new services and improvement in trade activities at certain terminals, and contribution of Visayas Container Terminal (VCT) in Iloilo,” ICTSI said. The company won the 25-year contract to take over and develop the P10.53-billion VCT project last April. READ: Steady expansion abroad helped ICTSI achieve record H1 income ICTSI is rehabilitating the terminal facility and bringing in cargo-handling equipment to improve operations at VCT. The listed company said it would operate the sea terminal exclusively for foreign vessels and cargoes, but will include provision for local shipments in the initial five years. The port has 627 meters of operational quay length and 20 hectares of land for container and general cargo storage, warehousing and other cargo-handling activities. VCT has an annual cargo capacity of 100,000 TEUs and 2 million metric tons of non-containerized cargo. The Iloilo port serves Panay Island in Western Visayas. Meanwhile, ICTSI will also start building by next year year an $800-million seaport in Bauan, Batangas to boost shipping in the Calabarzon region and provide synergy with Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) located over a hundred kilometers (km) north of the planned new terminal. The planned port, which is designed to handle over two million TEUs of cargo annually, will include 900 meters of quay and at least eight ship-to-shore gantry cranes. The completion of the first berth is targeted by the end of 2027. The Batangas port is situated 120 km south of Manila and nine km west of Batangas City. It will have direct access to expressways in southern Luzon, which can ease the cargo movements in and out of the facility. In January to September, ICTSI spent $298.63 million — or about 66 percent of its programmed $450-million capital expenditures this year — for its expansion plans in Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia, among others. —Tyrone Jasper C. Piad