The Manila North Harbor Port Terminals, Inc. (MNHPI) eyes significant increases in cargo volume handled in the next five years.
Container throughput is expected to jump 25.3% to 1.201 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2018 from 958,000 TEUs this year.
For the same period in review, breakbulk cargo will rise 5.5% to 1.990 million metric tons (mmt) from 1.886 mmt and bulk cargo by 5% to 411,600 mt from 392,000 mt.
For this year alone, container volume is expected to increase 14.5% from the 2011 figure of 836,000 TEUs. Breakbulk volume will, however, slide 1.78% to 1.886 million metric tons (mmt) from 1.92 mmt this year and bulk volume by 25.7% to 392,000 mt from 528,000 mt in 2011.
“We are investing about P6 billion for the modernization of the North Harbor, with phase one to be completed in May,” MNHPI chief executive officer Richard Barclay said at the recently concluded 7th Philippine Ports and Shipping Conference.
The first of the three-phase project involves construction of a new passenger terminal and operations center.
Phase I will increase port capacity to 2.8 million TEUs from the current one million TEUs and boost passenger terminal capacity to 2,000 seats from 1,400 seats.
MNHPI said more cargo-handling equipment are expected to arrive in the next few months as part of the modernization program for the country’s top domestic port.
Image from www.mnhport.com.ph
