Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. has taken an interest in the P17-billion Davao-Sasa port modernization project of the government.
Public-Private Partnership Center executive director Cosette Canilao said SMC is one of the firms that bought bid documents for the Aquino administration’s first seaport project under the public-private partnership scheme. Canilao did not name the other companies.
SMC, through its subsidiary Petron Corp., owns a third of Manila North Harbor Port, Inc., which operates the country’s premier domestic terminal. The company also owns SMC Shipping and Lighterage Corp. that offers cargo handling, warehousing, and shipping services.
International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) earlier said it was no longer keen to bid for the project because the investment requirement is “so large” it doubts it can recover its capital considering a number of ports already operate in the region.
ICTSI already runs three ports in Mindanao – in Cagayan de Oro (Mindanao International Container Terminal), General Santos (jointly with Asian Terminals Inc) and Hijo port in Davao.
The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) last month opened bidding for the project, giving prospective bidders until December to make offers.
The 30-year concession includes the finance, design, redevelopment, operation, and maintenance of the Davao gateway which was built during the mid-1990s by the Ramos administration.
The project includes modernizing the existing port and establishing dedicated container-handling facilities with an initial design capacity of 1,900 container ground slots to a minimum of 2,700 ground slots. It also includes constructing a new apron, developing a linear quay, expanding the backup area, providing container yards and warehouses, and installing container-handling equipment.
Currently, Davao-Sasa port has a total area of 18.1 hectares, 1,093 meters of quay, and berth depth of 11 meters. It also features 4.15 hectares of container yard, 864 container ground slots, and 0.2 hectare of reefer yard. The port has an annual capacity of 550,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), and the largest vessel it has accommodated so far was an 800-TEU ship.
Plans to modernize and rehabilitate Davao-Sasa port have been on the drawing board for three years, and bidding has been moved several times. The contract of the port’s current cargo-handling operators Davao Integrated Port and Stevedoring Services Corp. and Filipinas Port Services, Inc. will expire in 2016.
