Asian Terminals Inc. said it is ready to handle the growing international cargo volume at the Port of Manila, including the cargo rush normally associated with the holiday season.
ATI’s Manila South Harbor made history as it handled over 100,000 twenty-foot equivalent units of international containers in September, the first time it exceeded the level in a single month, while maintaining world-class production levels.
Prior to this, it twice broke all-time record volume, handling over 94,000 TEUs in May and over 95,000 TEUs in June.
ATI said without any signs of slowdown, Manila South Harbor’s production averaged above the industry standard of 25 gross moves per crane per hour and even recorded world-class levels of over 30 GMPH in previous months, comparable to the production of leading global ports in Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Production is measured by how many containers a crane moves from ship to shore per hour. Higher GMPH reflects efficient handling of containers at berth, which redounds to faster turnaround of ships and trucks and ultimately quicker delivery of goods to consignees.
The port operator owned by businessman Eusebio Tanco partly attributed these achievements to the highly effective Terminal Appointment Booking System, an online scheduling facility for the orderly delivery and pullout of containers at the terminal.
Since TABS’ implementation, Manila South Harbor has been able to handle over 25-percent increase in truck transactions from a daily average of 1,600 at faster turnaround time.
Handling more transactions in the same fixed timeframe as before means an equivalent reduction in truck numbers on the road as fewer vehicles are needed to be placed on the roads at any single time to keep the supply-chain going. This makes a welcome contribution to Metro Manila’s road decongestion.
Aside from this, ATI’s aggressive investment delivered greater capacity and efficiency at Manila South Harbor.
ATI said in 2015 alone, it increased its rubber-tired gantry cranes to 23 units, equivalent to a 50-percent increase in fleet size since 2013, to complement its nine quay cranes. It also appended its container side loaders to increase its fleet size by 50 percent.
ATI said next year, it would take delivery of two brand new QCs and other operations critical cargo handling equipment – alongside the completion of additional container yards, process improvement and technological advancement – that would ensure higher capacity and efficiency at the Port of Manila in line with future market growth.
ATI earlier reported a net income of P1.02 billion in the first half, up from P1.01 billion a year ago as revenues rose 2.6 percent to P4.4 from P4.2 billion.