Reefer Pilipinas Express Line has started trial run on the Davao-General Santos-Bitung (DGB) route, signalling the revival of the route between Mindanao and North Sulawesi, Indonesia, according to the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).
An initiative under the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) sub-regional cooperation, the route was launched in April 2017 but was later suspended due to low volumes.
MinDA deputy executive director Romeo Montenegro noted that the first vessel used then was “too large” having a capacity of 500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU); a smaller vessel had to be found for the route.
MinDA said Reefer Pilipinas is a Manila-based company recently established to support the Philippines in reviving the route. The company will be utilizing a conventional type vessel with load capacity up of to 290 TEU containers, and 10,000 loose cargoes.
For its maiden offering, the service sailed from Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh Port last June 16, traversing Malaysia’s Labuan and Sepanggar, and Indonesia’s Bitung and Ternate, before docking at Kudos Port in the Philippines’ Davao City on July 6. The company expects to make calls at the General Santos City port on its second sail.
“We found the right model to support the BIMP-EAGA trade, and are now expanding [the route] to the larger ASEAN with the inclusion of Ho Chi Minh City to our route plan,” Reefer Filipinas chief executive officer Felix Ishizuka said, adding that their primary goal is to “help create more trading activities in the sub-region by providing the right service.”
The expanded route service will take less than three days to reach Bitung from Davao City excluding port stay, while the Manila-Bitung route takes three to five weeks of shipping, according to Ishisuka.
“I call on our traders and business players in Mindanao to explore this faster, cheaper, and more direct shipping service. We need to ensure product exchange for the service to be sustained,” MinDA chairman/officer-in-charge Nathaniel Dalumpines, who also sits as the Philippine signing minister for BIMP-EAGA, said.
Dalumpines added that various outbound trade missions to Jakarta and North Sulawesi have been initiated by the Mindanao private sector and concerned government agencies, including the Department of Trade and Industry, MinDA, and the Philippine Embassy in Indonesia to identify prospective traders who could make use of the route.
“We look forward to the upcoming resurgence of the DGB route. This will strengthen our Philippines and Indonesia trading blocs especially with the support of the BIMP-EAGA and ASEAN,” said Dr. Malou Monteverde, former president of Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCCI) and one of the primary proponents of the sea route.
Among initial goods to be exported from Davao are fresh fruits, activated carbon, automotive battery, foodstuff, and animal feeds.
DCCCI president Art Milan expressed support for the initial sailing of Reefer Pilipinas Express Line.
“We are committed to helping sustain this route. The upcoming 2019 Davao Investment Conference, the biennial business and investment promotions event organized by Davao Chamber would be a great opportunity for us to, once again, encourage investors and traders for this route,” Milan said.
The route was selected as one of the three pilot areas for roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) operation under the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s feasibility study on the establishment of the ASEAN RoRo network.
BIMP-EAGA is a sub-regional cooperation formed in 1994 to accelerate development of member-countries’ focus areas through cross-border economic integration.
