ICTSI allots additional P3.4 B for capex

MANILA, Philippines - Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) is beefing up its budget for capital expenditures this year by $75 million (P3.375 billion at P45:$1) to bankroll its overseas and domestic expansion projects.

ICTSI assistant corporate secretary Benjamin Gorospe III said the company’s board of directors approved the appropriation of a portion of ICTSI’s existing retained earnings.

The port giant has yet to announce its capital expenditures for 2015 but has allocated $310 million for 2014 to expand its flagship Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and bankroll its overseas expansion particularly in Mexico, Argentina, Honduras, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

ICTSI is spending P3 billion to expand MICT and to put up an inland container depot in Laguna.                         

ICTSI has allocated P1.6 billion to bankroll the first phase of the expansion project of MICT through the development of six hectares of new yard space.

The listed port operator has completed Phase 1 of the company’s berth seven-yard development by deploying four hectares of new yard space to serve as empty container depot that could store up to 4,300 containers in moderate wind conditions.

Furthermore, another two hectares would be competed by yearend bringing to 6,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) the total capacity of the new empty container depot.

ICTSI said the new yard is part of the company’s expansion project for the MICT aimed at immediately addressing growing volumes at the Port of Manila.

The expansion program to be completed in 20 months would add approximately 500,000 TEUs of yard capacity to the MICT.

Likewise, ICTSI is spending another P1.4 billion to develop a 21-hectare inland container depot.

The port operator owned by businessman Enrique Razon Jr. has also ordered six new rubber tired gantries to be deployed either at MICT or in Subic Bay.

ICTSI develops, manages and operates container terminals in gateway ports in over 20 countries across the Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, and Africa.

Earnings of ICTSI climbed five percent to $142.3 million in the first nine months of 2014 from $135.7 million in the same period in 2013 on the back of higher volume handled by its domestic and international ports.