The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) intends to award the P19.7-billion Davao-Sasa port modernization project by March next year and start the construction of Phase 1 by June.
To achieve this target, DOTC presented during the pre-bid conference on October 26 the project timeline it has prepared. According to plans, the second draft of the concession agreement is set for release by the middle of this month, and second one-on-one consultations with bidders will be held by month’s end.
Afterwards, the final concession agreement will be released by December and bid submissions will be accepted in January 2016.
From there awarding of the winning bid is targeted for March next year and signing of the concession agreement for May.
Phase 1 construction is then expected to start in June. First phase works include at least 500 meters of new quay wall, an administration building, a truck parking area, and a minimum of 1,900 ground slots. Operations of Phase 1 are scheduled for December 2017.
Phase 2, on the other hand, includes a minimum of 750 meters of new quay wall (including 500 meters from Phase 1) and some 2,700 ground slots.
The entire infrastructure undertaking includes building a new apron and linear quay; expanding the back-up area, container yards and warehouses; and installing ship-to-shore cranes and rubber-tired gantries.
The winning concessionaire will operate and maintain the port, collect port dues, provide port infrastructure including port assets, and hold a handover at the end of the concession period or on termination.
The concession period will run for 25 years from start of operation and maintenance.
DOTC earlier said that once the first phases of the project are completed in 2018, the Davao-Sasa Port “will be comparable with the country’s top ports in terms of speed and quality of service, cutting down cargo unloading from three days to three hours by using modern ship-to-shore cranes and port operating systems.”
The project has attracted five qualified bidders, namely, San Miguel Holdings, Corp.-APM Terminals Management (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Consortium; Asian Terminals Inc. and DP World FZE Consortium; Bollore Africa Logistics; International Container Terminal Services, Inc.; and Portek International Pte. Ltd. and AP National Marine Corporation Consortium.
Banana country
The economy of Davao thrives on banana exports, the region being the second largest banana exporter in the world.
A study conducted by the International Finance Corporation and the Development Bank of the Philippines projects that container traffic in the Davao Region will increase by at least 6% annually over the next 25 years.
Without the added capacity that a modernized Davao-Sasa Port will bring, DOTC said “there will be a strong chance of shortage in port capacity in Davao bay which may affect small-medium banana growers who may not be able to export their bananas.”
An edge of an upgraded Davao-Sasa Port is its proximity to banana plantations, as this will help growers save at least P8,000 in trucking costs per delivery, DOTC noted.
Latest Philippine Ports Authority data show that Davao-Sasa handled 142,182 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first semester of 2015, a 33% improvement from the 106,818 TEUs processed in the same period last year.
