SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Subic’s New Container Terminal 2 (NCT2) recently received its 100,000th container, a milestone for the port.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman Roberto Garcia, who was on hand to witness unloading of the container, said the event reflected the growing number of port users transporting their goods through the Port of Subic.
In August, the port handled 83,000 containers, almost double the 43,000 recorded for the same period last year.
“As we reached the 100,000-mark this month, we again reached another milestone,” Garcia said.
He noted SBMA has so far been successful in marketing Subic as the only port in Luzon that has a one-stop shop.
SBMA’s hosting of two maritime summits, the formation of a Maritime Technical Group, and the agency’s aggressive maritime business marketing program “certainly helped a lot in this undertaking,” he added.
Garcia said the one-stop-shop facility inside Subic’s container terminal has been received well by brokers from Manila and Northern and Central Luzon because all the necessary documentation “stops” could be accomplished within the shop.
“If your papers are in order, you can finish processing in just 30 minutes or an hour,” he explained.
Roberto Locsin, general manager of Subic Bay International Container Terminal which operates the NCT2, said the 100,000th container was unloaded from Kaohsiung by Wan Hai Lines for delivery to United Auctioneers, Inc., a heavy equipment trader in the Subic Bay Freeport.
Garcia said SBMA is expanding its seaport and is “pushing very hard to increase cargo volume here to decongest Manila Port.”
The SBMA official noted Subic is the only port in the western seaboard that still has the capacity to accommodate more containers, as the Batangas port is already 100% full.
“Before you could unload in Batangas or even in Manila, you’d be forced to wait for three to four days. In Subic, you can enter anytime, unload anytime and process your cargo anytime” he said. “We now have seven shipping lines coming to Subic on a regular basis,” he added.
Subic, as well as Batangas, became an extension port because of port congestion in Manila.
