International Container Terminal Services Inc. said Tuesday it will pursue the expansion of its port in Manila to handle bigger vessels.
“We will be pushing the expansion of MICT [Manila International Container Terminal]. It’s in our contract,” ICTSI senior vice president and MICT head Christian Gonzalez said.
“We still have 21 years in our contract,” he said.
The MICT expansion was put on hold because of the traffic problem and the previous administration decided to promote Subic and Batangas as alternative ports.
Gonzales said with the new administration, ICTSI would work with the Philippine Ports Authority for the expansion of MICT particularly on the water side. The project would also complement the proposed Cavite Gateway Terminal.
ICTSI completed the yard expansion of MICT in November 2015 to address the growing volume at the Port of Manila.
A part of MICT’s P5-billion expansion project, Yard 7 expanded the terminal’s capacity to 2.75 million twenty-foot equivalent units from 2.5 million TEUs.
ICTSI also submitted an unsolicited proposal to the government to build Cavite Gateway Terminal within a six-hectare property in Tanza, Cavite.
The company’s investment in a barge and Ro-Ro terminal will cost more than $30 million for first phase of the project.
Phase is designed to support a total output of 115,000 TEUs per year which would translate into 140,000 fewer truck trips plying city roads annually.
The port operator earlier posted a net income of $150.8 million in January to September, up from $143.7 million in the same period in 2015.
ICTSI’s revenues from port operations amounted to $390.3 million, up 15 percent from $339.5 million in 2015.