SBMA wants to award NCT-2 by June

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) wants to award the contract for the operation of the new container terminal 2 (NCT-2) in June, in time for the full opening of the Subic-Clark Toll way System.

SBMA is awaiting approval of Terms of Reference (TOR) to start with the bidding of NCT2.

“We are facilitating the privatization of NCT-2 and by June this year we are hoping that operations of the terminal will be in full swing,” Port manager Capt. Perfecto Pascual, said.

SBMA administrator Armand Arreza earlier said that they are wooing major international carriers China Overseas Shipping Corp., OOCL, American Presidents Lines, Maersk and evergreen to join the bidding

International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), whose subsidiary Subic Bay Terminal Corp. (SBITC) won the management and operations contract for NCT-1, is also expected to bid for NCT2.

Aileen Zosa, BCDA vice President for business development of Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said the Subic-Clark expressway will make the shipment of cargo of industries in Clark faster as well as the bulk cargoes in Subic.

The Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), which covers a total distance of 93.77 kilometers and said to be the longest 4-lane expressway in the country today, will bring more investment opportunities and good business for terminal operators.

“We hope that shipping lines or a combination of port operators and shipping lines would join the bidding to guarantee the base cargo of the terminal once it is put into full commercial operations,” Pascual said.

NCT-2 has capacity 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), which can be expanded to 600,000 TEUs. The capacity has potential annual revenues of $6 million, including wharfage fees.

The annual lease for the port, which has a lifespan of 50 years, will be enough to shoulder the $60-million loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation that was used to partly fund the project.

SBMA is also expecting a bigger number of ship calls this year with the scheduled operation of container terminals this year and operation of SCTEx.

SBMA projects about 2,300 ships will be calling at Subic this, up by some 30%. Over the actual recorded total of 1,778 in 2007.

Seaport revenues were expected to reach P228.2 million, 5% higher than last year’s collection of P218.1 million.

SBMA said the actual ship calls stood at 1,356 in 2003, 1,442 in 2004, 1,251 in 2005, and 1,576 in 2006.