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Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. is working to deepen Cebu International Port’s draft to 12 meters this year to accommodate bigger vessels
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The dredging project started in December 2023
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Since last year, CIP is able to accommodate vessels with a draft of 9.5 meters with the access channel towards the terminal now with 10.66 meters as the lowest draft
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To maintain the target 12-meter draft, Opascor purchased a dredger and a work boat
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It is scheduled to receive this month a new hopper barge
Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (Opascor) is deepening Cebu International Port’s (CIP) draft to 12 meters this year to accommodate bigger vessels, according to one of its executives.
The cargo-handling operator of CIP, Opascor began its dredging project in December 2023 . In June last year, the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) issued an advisory that CIP is now able to accommodate vessels with a draft of 9.5 meters with the access channel towards the terminal now with 10.66 meters as the lowest draft.
Previously, the navigational area going towards CIP was at 8.5 meters.
With the project, Velasco said they are anticipating bigger vessels to call CIP, as well as shipping lines maximizing capacity of current vessels so they can carry more cargo.
Opascor has also collaborated with the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (Namria), Philippine Coast Guard, and CPA to update the nautical chart and make the 12-meter draft official.
Last January, Namria issued a preliminary Notice to Mariners for the dredged area in CIP. As recommended by Namria, Opascor will engage a surveying company to conduct a hydrographic survey of CIP scheduled for the second quarter of the year.
To maintain the draft, the company purchased a dredger and a work boat, which have already arrived with assembly ongoing. A hopper barge was also purchased and will be shipped this month.
Aside from dredging, Opascor will transition this year from the in-house terminal operating system (TOS) to a commercial TOS for smoother “exchange of data to our clients, the shipping lines, and other stakeholders that will be using our data in the in the port,” Velasco said.
The improvements are being made even as CIP’s berth occupancy rate in January 2025 was at 32% for the 624-meter berth and 82% for the finger pier.
In 2024, CIP had a high average container vessel productivity of around 27 moves per hour, having been able to serve vessels in less than 24 hours. Velasco noted they can sometimes finish the discharging and loading operations in 14 to 16 hours.
In April 2024, the company took delivery of one new quay crane and two rubber-tired gantries.
READ: Cebu port gets new crane, 2 gantries
CIP can accommodate 11,017 twenty-foot equivalent units at any given time with average container dwell time of around six days. In 2024, yard utilization was at 46%.
Opascor has also increased CIP’s reefer plugs from more than 300 to 513, with the current average reefer plug utilization at 20%.
Eight shipping lines call CIP, connecting the port to various Asian hubs. – Roumina Pablo
