MANILA International Container Terminal (MICT) operator International Container Terminal Services, Inc (ICTSI) and South Harbor Asian Terminals, Inc (ATI) are proceeding with investments this year that will help lick congestion at the facilities.
ATI is sinking in about P15 billion, part of which will finance the construction of an offsite container yard (CY) adjacent to its facility.
The yard will be built six kilometers from South Harbor and will likely double the current CY capacity of 120 containers per month, announced Customs commissioner Angelito Alvarez.
ATI is also extending Pier 3 by 120 meters, expanding Pier 9, and demolishing two Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) buildings to give way to a bigger and expanded container yard.
ICTSI, for its part, has committed to expand Berth 6 by 320 meters, Berth 7 by 300 meters, as well as its container yard. It is also eyeing a truck-holding area outside the port zone.
Meanwhile, the PPA is recommending either extended working hours or 24/7 operations at the pier just to clear empty containers at MICT and South Harbor, currently estimated at 9,000.
As of this writing, congestion at the facilities remains heavy, aggravated by the holiday backlog. Container dwell time has reportedly increased to 10 days from the already abnormally high seven to eight days.
Trucks are also making a weekly round trip of one from the usual three.
Vessel standby time vessels remains up to five days, with daily losses per vessel reported at $15,000. This has prompted international container shipping lines operating in Manila to charge a congestion surcharge ($50 for a twenty-footer and $100 for a forty-footer) on all incoming and outgoing containers.
