ICTSI partially completes Manila Intl Container Terminal’s Phase 1 expansion

Following the congestion issue that hounded the country's major seaports, the port operator of Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) has partly completed the Phase 1 of the port's expansion worth $35 million (P1.6 billion).

In an e-mailed statement Thursday, International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) said the expansion project for the MICT is aimed at immediately addressing growing volumes at the Port of Manila.

The full development – estimated to be completed in 20 months – will add approximately 500,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of yard capacity to the MICT.

So far, it has added four hectares of new yard space in the Manila port which can store up to 4,300 containers in moderate wind conditions.

The remaining two hectares in the expansion project is expected to be completed by year-end.

Upon completion of Phase 1, the entire area of Phase 1 will store 6,500 TEUs.

Complementary to the new yard is the development of an inland container depot (ICD) in Laguna, about 21 hectares, where the company budgeted $30 million, or P1.4 billion.

On order are six new rubber tired gantries, which may be deployed at either the MICT or ICTSI’s Subic operations as the demand dictates.

The port congestion partly contributed to the lower gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter, with Philippine output growing at 5.3 percent, compared with 6.4 percent in the second quarter, coming from 6.9 percent a year earlier.

The City of Manila imposed a city-wide daytime truck ban in February, which was lifted only in mid-September.

The ban was aimed to ease traffic, but government officials blamed it for constricting the flow of cargo from the ports of Manila and aggravating the slow movement of goods in and out of container port terminals. — Danessa O. Rivera/BM, GMA News