THE Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT) saw a 10% growth in 2009 container volume to 118,664 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 109,028 TEUs in the previous year, thanks to strong domestic trade.
The 2009 figure is also 5% higher than forecast.
MCT port department manager Dante Clarito described the double-digit growth as “unprecedented” at a time when most ports in the country expected flat or, at best, a low single-digit growth.
“Hopefully we can duplicate this feat this year,” Clarito told PortCalls.
Domestic trade accounted for 66% of the total container volume and foreign trade the rest.
Large clients such as Nestle and Del Monte brought in much of the local volume.
Among products from the region are pineapples, banana and meat.
A modest chunk of the volume was also supplied by small- and medium-scale enterprises, mostly manufacturing firms of handicrafts and furniture products.
International carriers Maersk Line, APL, Regional Container Lines and Pacific Eagle Lines regularly call at the port and so do local operators Magsaysay-owned NMC Container Lines and MCC Transport Phils.
Located in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, MCT is designed to accommodate an annual throughput of 270,000 TEUs. Its berth length is 300 meters (m) and depth 13m. The facility has two gantry cranes and four rubber-tired gantries.
The terminal is operated by Mindanao Container Terminal Services Inc, a subsidiary of International Container Terminal Services, Inc.
